The Anomaly
by LunaRoseDiCaprio
Summary: Her father thought she was dead, but Jenny was a Time Lady. She followed him. And in this universe, they found each other again. Her father's friends, enemies, aliens, new humans, new organisations… these became part of Jenny's life. And she loved it. - Rewrite of some episodes plus a couple of new adventures along the way! T 'cause a certain Captain makes a few appearances... ;)
1. The Doctor's Daughter

"Hello Dad."

"Generated anomaly… generated. How about that? Jenny?"

"Two hearts…"

"Watch and learn, father."

"Not impossible, just a bit unlikely!"

"Love the running!"

"You're my daughter. And we've only just got started."

"Hello boys…"

Everything came back to me. I was laid on a table, looking up at two faces; one human, or Timelord, whichever… and the other Hath. I was shot, that I remembered pretty clearly. After, I fell into someone's arms. They were the arms of my father, and his big, deep brown, tearful eyes were the last image I could recollect before the darkness. Well, not darkness exactly… more like nothingness. Then I woke up here.

I looked between the two boys above me, both of whom had expressions of absolute horror plastered across their faces. I leapt off the table, somehow knowing exactly what I was going to do. I ran straight towards the escape pods, and let myself in. I could hear Cline yelling behind me, but I didn't stop. Why would I? I was shot, and killed, yet I was here and I was alive. I'd been given a second chance, and I wasn't about to let that go. I had to follow my dad; I had to travel in time and space… and no one was going to stop me.

"Jenny, come back!" Cline's voice echoed through the pod.

"Sorry, can't stop. What are you gonna do, tell my dad?" I said, grinning.

"But where are you going?" Cline replied, with panic rising in his voice.

"Oh, I've got the whole universe! Planets to save, civilisations to rescue, creatures to defeat… and an awful lot of running to do."

I pressed buttons (somehow knowing which ones were right, must have been from the war knowledge I had imprinted in me from the machine), and grabbed the wheel of the pod excitedly. I gazed out of the window at the dark, starry space. It was infinite, like my dad's old eyes. There were endless possibilities, opportunities and adventures to be had out there… and I was going to seize them with everything I had. The pod rose, and I tipped the controls forwards. Suddenly the pod rocketed upwards, and I was on my way.

"Allons-y!" I whispered.

Sighing happily, I settled into the rhythm of the pod's engine, and relaxed back into the driving seat. I had no idea where I was actually going, but I reasoned that dad went anywhere and everywhere, we'd be bound to bump into each other at some point, surely. I didn't have to wait long, as it happened. I was fantasising about dad's spaceship, what it would look like, how cool it must be… when a blue box span directly over the front window, and whizzed speedily straight ahead of me. I stared at the strange little thing, wondering what it could possibly be. I felt connected to it, and without realising, I accelerated. There was something telling me to follow its path, and within a minute the pod was right behind. The box abruptly pulled away, and as I lost a little hope that I could track it until it landed, (wherever that might have been) the pod jerked forwards again as if it was being dragged.

"What the hell?" I shouted over the shrill grumbling of the engine.

I was flying far faster than I thought possible, and I was certain the box was towing me through the atmosphere. The pod was completely out of my control. I was zooming past stars and solar systems, all a blur. I saw a yellow light in the distance, which the pod quickly caught up to.

Then everything stopped.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: First FanFic attempt, hope I started OK :) I really like the character of Jenny, and I think her exit in the show could lead to so many different amazing stories.. I wanted her to return so bad, and I had this idea of how she could fit into the episodes since, so I thought I'd give it a go :) Chapter 1 based on the ending of 'The Doctor's Daughter'.. **


	2. The Stolen Earth

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: As each chapter is based on an episode, they're going to start getting longer.. hence this one being 4,000 words ;) hope that's a positive :) We're going to start seeing our old favourites in this chapter too... Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or Torchwood..**

My eyes were tightly closed. I had no idea when I'd shut them, but it must have been before the pod landed. My surroundings were a complete unknown to me at this point… I could have been anywhere. My hands were still gripped to the wheel. Breathing heavily, I opened my eyes to see the first new world I'd got to.

In front of the pod was cabin-like building. It was dark, so I couldn't quite make everything out, but I noticed newspaper clippings pinned across the windows. Slowly, I turned my head to the side. On the right there were railings, and to the left was water. My mouth curved into a wide smile, and I laughed as the excitement hit me. Immediately I opened the pod and hopped out, grinning at the beauty of this new planet. There were no life forms around, at least that I could see.

"This is brilliant!" I said to myself.

I looked up at the sky, and to my delight, I saw dozens of planets, big and small, and all different colours, dotted about the clouds. This planet was fantastic.

"I wonder what it's called…" I pondered aloud, and decided to find someone to ask. The cabin beside me looked as though it was lived in, so I tried there first. I grabbed the door handle and pulled. It opened straight away, and I heard a bell ring. I stepped inside to find a small room which had a desk and many filing cabinets, but again, no life. I sighed, and walked further into the room. Across the desk were hundreds of leaflets and timetables, which seemed to be about something called 'Cardiff'.

"Cardiff," I whispered. "Maybe that's what the planet's called."

At that moment, a door behind the desk opened and a man walked through. He wasn't some weird creature or alien; he actually appeared to be human, or maybe even Timelord, although I felt like I'd know if he was. I decided that he was human.

"Hi!" I said enthusiastically. "I'm Jenny. Am I on Cardiff?"

"On Cardiff?" The man replied. "You're in Cardiff, not on it." He peered at me inquisitively. "Are you British?"

"British?" I asked. "I don't know. I was born on Messaline-"

"Wait here." The man said. He left the room again, and I heard him speaking to someone. I wondered what 'British' was, until he returned and smiled warmly.

"My boss would like to see you."

The man pushed a button under the desk and the stone wall opposite opened, revealing a long corridor. I looked back at the man, who nodded encouragingly at me. I grinned at him, and began to walk down the corridor.

It was long and winding, but eventually I reached a large round metal door. This one opened of its own accord, this time revealing something much more beautiful and startling: the room was massive, the ceiling literally unending. Everywhere I looked there were computers and screens, all connected by metal frames. There were more rooms dotted about the edges of the space, with glass walls so that you could see inside. Twisting steps led to higher levels, which went up seemingly forever. The floor was metal again, with grates and railings leading around the computers and the walls were tiled. In the corner there was what looked like a medical area. As my eyes observed the magnificent scenery in front of me, I noticed three people. The first was a tall man, very easy on the eye, dressed in a shirt and braces. Behind him was a dark-haired woman, pale and pretty. The last figure was the same man as before, stood beside the tall guy, smiling knowingly down at me.

"I'm Jenny." I said to them.

"Jenny," the tall man repeated, smiling alluringly at me. He had a different accent to the other man. "Where are you from?"

"Messaline," I replied, walking towards the trio. "I was created to be a soldier."

"Really?" The man asked. "Tell me Jenny, Messaline's far away. How did a pretty young thing like you get here?"

"I don't know. I was in my pod, following a ship, and it kind of latched on, then I ended up here," I said. "Who are you?"

"Torchwood."

"Torchwood?"

"Yeah," he said. "And you? I'm guessing you're human?"

"Well, not really," I answered, getting closer and examining the computer screens near me. "My dad's a Timelord."

"What?" The man exclaimed.

"Timelord. I'm part Timelord." I confirmed. The man had an expression of shock and confusion. "Is that bad?"

"I'm not sure. What's your dad's name?" He asked, staring intently and stepping closer. Every time he took a step forwards, I felt strange around him. He felt wrong.

"The Doctor," I replied. The man's face suddenly broke into a huge cheesy smile.

"YES!" He laughed and hugged me, lifting me off the ground. My whole body shivered with unease, but underneath I rather enjoyed it.

"Wait, Jack, your Doctor's her father?" The woman behind asked.

"Yes!" He replied. "Jenny is an echo of the Timelords, she's just what we need to find the Doctor and sort this planet in the sky thing."

"I don't understand," I said. "You know my dad? Where is he?"

"I don't know, Jenny," the guy said. "But you can help us."

"How? What's your name?"

"Captain Jack Harkness, ma'am," he said, introducing himself. "This is Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, my team. We're Torchwood."

"Right," I said, suddenly trusting these people, even Captain Jack Harkness, who felt so unnatural. They wanted me to help them, just because they knew my dad. "Let's get to work Torchwood! What's the problem?"

A croaking sound echoed around the Torchwood base, coming through the loudspeaker.

"EXTERMINATE!"

I looked at Captain Jack. His face drained of colour and he grabbed the hands of Gwen and Ianto.

"Oh no!" He exclaimed.

"Who are they? Do you know them, Jack?" Gwen asked frantically. Jack kissed both his friends' foreheads.

"There's nothing I can do," he said. "I'm sorry, we're dead."

I watched Jack carefully. He seemed to be the leader of Torchwood, and he knew his stuff. He knew exactly who the voice belonged to.

"Captain, who are they?" I asked him quietly. For some reason, every time the growling voice rang through the room a spark of fear and hatred shivered down my spine.

Captain Jack looked into my eyes. "Daleks."

The next few minutes were a blur to me. The Torchwood team rushed around the place like the soldiers back on Messaline, intent on their mission to stop the Daleks.

"…The Valiant's down…"

"…Daleks landing in Japan…"

"…lost contact with the Prime Minister…"

I stood by and watched. The three of them worked together effortlessly, as if they'd been doing this sort of thing for years. Then again, if Jack was friends with dad, then it wasn't a surprise for him to be battling aliens as a job. I wanted to help them, but this wasn't the way I was born to fight; the soldiers on Messaline were trained for physical combat. I knew I didn't have to act that way, dad taught me that I had a choice, but it was difficult to overcome the urge. Eventually I'd learn, I thought, and finding dad and travelling the stars with him would help me do that.

"Jack, Manhattan!" Gwen called to Jack, passing him a phone. He quickly held it to his ear, talking hastily to someone on the other end.

"Martha, get outta there!"

"Martha?" I said, recognising the name. "Dad's Martha?"

"They're targeting military bases and you're next on the list!" Jack continued. Martha obviously stopped replying as Jack stood listening for a while afterwards, his eyes flitting furiously. We all continued to watch intently for some new information.

"Martha, I'm telling you," he spoke to the absent girl. "Don't use Project Indigo, it's not safe! Martha! Don't do it! DON'T!" Jack threw the phone down with despair and kicked the desk he was stood behind violently. He held his head in his hand, rubbing desperately across his eyes, breathing quickly and shaking with anger. He was intimidating in this state.

"What's Project Indigo?" Ianto asked urgently.

"Experimental teleport salvaged from the Sontarans," he answered with a distressed sigh. "But they haven't got coordinates or stabilisation."

"So where is she?"

"Scattered into atoms," Jack replied sadly. "Martha's down."

For the next hour, the Torchwood team sat around their base silently, listening to the Dalek voices screaming through the speakers. Jack was slumped miserably on the tiled steps, and I watched him from the computers. There was something about him I couldn't stand; something was telling me that he was wrong. It wasn't that I didn't like him, in fact I found him attractive. Was he an anomaly, like me? He was human, I could sense it, he just seemed impossible. But he knew dad, and if he knew dad, he must have known where to find him. I could survive being around Captain Jack until I located dad again… Plus, there were creatures to defeat; that's what dad did, and that was what I wanted to do.

"Someone's trying to get in touch." Gwen said. She was standing by a screen, frowning at it with frustration.

"The whole world's crying out, just leave it." Jack replied dejectedly.

"Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you!" A new voice spoke. "Now stand to attention, Sir."

"What?" Jack said, jumping to his feet and running over to Gwen. "Who is that?"

Ianto and me joined them, and the four of us stood by the screen, waiting for an image to appear.

"Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister." The woman on the screen introduced herself.

"Yeah, I know who you are." Jack said. He carried on talking to Harriet Jones, who was sat in a cosy room and looked determined to fulfil her plans, whatever they were.

"Sarah Jane Smith, 13 Bannerman Road. Are you there?" She asked openly. "Good! Now let's see if we can talk to each other," Harriet continued, obviously getting a reply from some other source. The screen suddenly split into four quarters, with Harriet in the top left, us top right, and a woman and boy in the bottom left (I assumed this was Sarah Jane Smith). The fourth quarter was empty still, and Harriet was busy pressing buttons. Jack turned and smiled hopefully at me.

"The fourth contact seems to be having trouble getting through. I'll just boost the signal." Harriet said. The bottom right corner suddenly filled with the image of a younger woman, dressed all in black.

"Hello?"

"Martha Jones!" Jack yelled, laughing merrily.

"Martha!" I said. "I knew it was you!"

"Martha, where are you?" Asked Jack.

"I guess Project Indigo was more clever than we thought," Martha replied. "One second I was in Manhattan, next second… maybe Indigo tapped into my mind because I ended up in the one place that I wanted to be."

"You came home," another woman, sat with Martha, said. "At the end of the world you came back to me."

"But now, all of a sudden, it's like the laptop turned itself on." Martha questioned.

"It did. That was me," Harriet said. "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister."

"Yes, I know who you are," replied Martha. I noticed a theme emerging here.

"I thought it was about time we all met, given the current crisis," Harriet continued. "Torchwood, this is Sarah Jane Smith."

"I've been following your work. Nice job with the Slitheen." Said Jack.

"Yeah well, I've been staying away from you lot," Sarah Jane replied. "Too many guns!"

"All the same. Might I say, looking good ma'am." Jack flirted.

"Really?" Said Sarah Jane, looking pleased with herself.

"Not now Captain," Harriet warned. "And Martha Jones, former companion to the Doctor."

"But how did you find me?"

"This, ladies and gentlemen, this is the subwave network," Harriet said. "A sentient piece of software programmed to seek out anyone and everyone who can help contact the Doctor." So if these were the people a machine contacted to help find dad, then these were the right people to be around. They could lead me straight to him.

"What if the Daleks can hear us?" Martha asked.

"No. That's the beauty of the subwave, it's undetectable." Replied Harriet.

"And you invented it?" Sarah Jane asked, with a hint of disbelief in her voice.

"I developed it," said Harriet. "It was created by the Mr Copper Foundation."

"Yeah, but what we need right now is a weapon. Jenny, ideas?" Jack asked unexpectedly. The members of Torchwood all looked at me hopefully.

"All the weapons are back on Messaline," I replied. "I didn't bring any with me, sorry."

"Jenny?" Martha called suddenly. "We thought you were dead!"

"Yeah, long story." I replied smiling. Jack looked at me with slight disappointment, and sighed.

"Anyway, Martha, what about you? Back at UNIT, what did they give you? What was that key thing?"

"The Oster Haagen Key." Martha replied.

"That key is not to be used, Dr Jones," Harriet said abruptly, with a little fear in her voice. "Not under any circumstances."

"But what is an Oster Haagen Key?" Jack asked, voicing the question on everyone's lips.

"Forget about the key, and that's an order. All we need is the Doctor." Harriet said definitively.

"Well excuse me, Harriet, but, well the thing is, you're looking for the Doctor but didn't he depose you?" Sarah Jane asked.

"He did," Harriet said. "And I've wondered about that for a long time whether I was wrong. But I stand by my actions to this day because I knew, I knew that one day the Earth would be in danger, and the Doctor would fail to appear. I told him so myself and he didn't listen."

"I've been trying to find him," Martha said. "The Doctor's got my phone on the TARDIS but I can't get through."

"That's why we need the subwave, to bring us all together," Harriet replied. "Combine forces, the Doctor's secret army." I liked that idea. I was glad I was a part of my dad's army.

"Wait a minute. We boost the signal, that's it! We transmit that telephone number through Torchwood itself using all the power of the rift-" Jack began.

"And we've got Mr Smith!" The boy with Sarah Jane said. "He can link up with every telephone exchange on the Earth, get the whole world to call the same number all at the same time, billions of phones calling out all at once!"

"That's brilliant!" I exclaimed.

"Who's the kid?" Jack said, pointing.

"That's my son." Said Sarah Jane.

"Excuse me, sorry. Sorry, hello, Ianto Jones. If we start transmitting, the subwave network is going to become visible, I mean, to the Daleks." Ianto interjected.

"Yes," Harriet replied. "And they'll trace it back to me, but my life doesn't matter. Not if it saves the Earth."

"Ma'am." Jack saluted respectfully, the admiration of Harriet beaming from him.

"Thank you, Captain," Harriet replied. "But there are people out there dying on the streets. Now, enough of words, let's begin!" Harriet turned away and began typing, and back at the Torchwood base we got to work.

"Rift power, activated!" Jack shouted.

"All terminals coordinated!" Cried Gwen.

"National Grid online, give it everything we've got!" Ianto said positively. From the computers I could hear the team calling their updates over the subwave network.

"And… sending!" I yelled, glad to be involved in the action now. A fantastic ring of white blue light rose up the metal tube in the centre of the Torchwood base, and I grinned, just knowing that dad would answer the call. Parts of the technology scattered around the room began to spark, and smoke flared from behind the screens.

"I think we've got a fix!" Jack hollered over the explosions.

"Harriet, our sources have locked on to your location," Gwen said worriedly from the screen next to me. "They've found you."

"I know, I'm using the network to mask your transmission," Harriet replied with no fear. "Keep going!" I heard the now familiar cry of the Daleks, and a crash as they blew into Harriet's home. I looked over to Jack, who had an anxious expression. We carried on with determination through the noise.

"Captain, I'm transferring the subwave network to Torchwood," Harriet spoke calmly from her desk. "You're in charge now. And tell the Doctor from me, he chose his companions well." Jack smiled gratefully at the screen, saying nothing, but his knowing expression translated as support and respect.

"It's been an honour." Harriet said, finally. We saw her stand and turn confidently to face the Daleks in her home. The sound from her end was quieter now, but after a few seconds we heard the Daleks blasting Harriet with their lasers, and her screen went blank. I stared at it, hoping desperately that this wasn't a regular occurrence in dad's life. Jack touched my back comfortingly, and I turned to face him.

"We wouldn't have gotten the Doctor here any other way." He said simply.

Suddenly, a new image appeared in the place of Harriet's. Two faces were gazing out of the screen: one, a flame-haired woman who I recognised immediately as Donna Noble. The other was a man with spiky hair, wearing a dark pinstriped suit, and he had big, deep brown eyes. My grin stretched right across my face.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jack shouted angrily. "Doctor, it's the Daleks."

"He's a bit nice, I thought he'd be older," Gwen commented.

"He's not that young." Ianto muttered in return. Everyone on the subwave network was talking at once, and I couldn't get my voice heard by my dad.

"…it's the Daleks, they're taking people to their spaceship…"

"…it's not just Dalek Caan…"

"Sarah Jane! And who's that boy?" Dad said, beaming. "That must be Torchwood. And Jenny? What?"

"Jenny?" Donna said excitedly. They'd spotted me!

"Hello dad." I replied happily.

"How are you there? How are you alive?" Dad questioned loudly with confusion.

"I'm part Timelord, right? 'Course I'm still alive," I said cheekily. "One bullet's not gonna stop me."

"Right, of course it's not," Dad replied, a huge smile spreading across his face. "Oh they're brilliant. Look at you, all you clever people!"

"That's Martha," Donna said. "And who's he?" She pointed directly at the screen.

"Captain Jack," Dad replied. "Don't, just don't."

"It's like an outer space Facebook,"

"Everyone except Rose." Dad said, scanning all the faces on the network. Suddenly, the screen went blank. I could hear dad and Donna shouting.

"We've lost them!"

"No no no no no! There's another signal coming through, there's someone else out there. Hello? Can you hear me? Rose?"

Another voice, a deep, rasping voice, came over the speaker. It sent chills through my body.

"Your voice is different and yet, its arrogance is unchanged," it said, riling me for insulting my brilliant dad. "Welcome to my new empire, Doctor. It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection and the triumph of Davros, lord and creator of the Dalek race."

"Doctor?" I heard Donna say quietly.

"Have you nothing to say?" The repulsive Davros said mockingly.

"Doctor, it's alright," Donna continued. "We're in the TARDIS, we're safe."

"But you were destroyed," said dad, addressing Davros finally. "In the very first year of the Time War, at the gates of Elysium. I saw your commandship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. I tried to save you."

"But it took one stronger than you, Dalek Caan himself." Davros said evilly.

"I flew into the wild and fire! I danced and died a thousand times!" A high-pitched, drunken voice sounded.

"Emergency temporal shift took him back into the Time War itself." Said Davros. What was this Time War? Dad said he'd fought and killed, but I never imagined him actually being a soldier.

"But that's impossible, the entire war is time locked." Dad replied angrily.

"And yet, he succeeded," Davros continued. "Oh, it cost him his mind, but imagine: a single, simple Dalek succeeded where emperors and Timelords have failed. A testament, don't you think, to my remarkable creations."

"And you made a new race of Daleks." Dad said.

"I gave myself to them, quite literally. Each one grown from a cell of my own body. New Daleks, true Daleks. I have my children, Doctor. What do you have?" Davros said.

"He has me." I said, though no one but Jack, Gwen and Ianto could hear. Jack touched my shoulder again, comforting me. The feeling of unease about the Captain was going slightly.

"After all this time, everything we saw, everything we lost," Dad replied to his enemy. "I have only one thing to say to you: bye!" A sense of relief washed over me. Dad was fine, he sounded confident again, and I heard his ship's engine begin. Then the stream stopped.

Torchwood started up again, and I leapt into action. We rushed around the base, typing on computers and plugging in wires. Jack left the room and returned with a phone to his ear.

"Gwen! Dalek source are heading for the bay. They've found us." Ianto called.

"Martha, open that Indigo device," I heard Jack say down the phone as he walked past me. "Now listen to me, lift the central panel. There's a string of numbers that keep changing…" I continued working at a computer, watching the progress of the Daleks coming towards the Torchwood base. Soon I'd see dad again, in the flesh.

"…That's the teleport base code, and that's all I need to get this thing working again," Jack said, grinning, and pointing at a large band on his wrist. "Oscillating four and nine." He muttered. "Thank you Martha Jones." He turned to us, now wearing a long blue coat, and smiled.

"I gotta go, I gotta find the Doctor."

"I'm coming with you." I said immediately.

"No." Jack replied firmly.

"You're going to my dad! That's the reason I came here, to find him!" I shouted. Jack looked shocked.

"He would kill-" He started.

"I'm not a member of Torchwood, you can't control what I'm allowed to do!" I argued, stepping closer to Jack and yelling almost in his face. Jack smiled with apparent satisfaction.

"You're definitely the Doctor's daughter," He said. I smiled. I was so glad to be accepted as worthy of being my dad's child. "Come on, hold this." Jack said, indicating his wrist. I grabbed it excitedly, and stood close to him.

"See you Gwen, Ianto!" I called to the remaining members of Torchwood.

"I'll come back," Jack said to them. They looked doubtful, like they'd heard it all before. "I'm coming back."

"Don't worry about us. Just go." Gwen said.

"We'll be fine." Ianto added.

"You better be." Jack replied, and we disappeared in a blaze of white light.

An instant later, we appeared in a long, dark street. I turned to see a glimpse of a gold cone-like figure, with an eyestalk and lasers, before Jack blasted its top off and killed it.

"Was that a Dalek?" I asked with a little panic.

"Yeah." Jack replied. Behind, my dad was laid on the floor, with a blonde girl in a purple jacket leaning over him. Why wasn't he stood up, protecting this girl from the Dalek rather than having her shield him? What happened to him? I feared the worst. He couldn't die now, not after I'd been given a second chance at life. We rushed over, just in time to hear the girl saying:

"Don't die! Oh my god, don't die!"

"DAD!" I shouted, the panic rising further in my voice. I met Donna by him, who had ran from the other side of the street, and she clutched at my hand.

"Get him into the TARDIS, quick! Move!" Jack yelled at us. I threw dad's arm over my shoulder and we lifted him to walk back to his ship. I almost didn't notice that it was the blue box I'd been following in my pod.

We laid dad down inside the ship. I continued to gaze down at him, still not quite believing I'd actually found him, and definitely not imagining that he was now dying before my eyes. He was writhing around, clearly in pain. It was excruciating even to watch.

"What do we do? There must be some medicine or something!" Donna shouted to anyone who would answer.

"Just step back," Jack replied, fairly calmly. Why was he so calm? "Rose, Jenny! Do as I say and get back! He's dying, and you know what happens next!"

"What do you mean, Jack?" I yelled.

"You can't! Not now I've come all this way!" The blonde girl beside me whispered, tears falling freely down her cheeks.

"I came to find you, dad," I said to the helpless figure on the ground below me. "I've already died in your arms once, you can't do it to me too!"

"What do you mean, what happens next?" Donna was still crying to Jack. Dad lifted his hand in the air, which was beginning to glow a golden yellow.

"It's starting." He managed to spit out.

"What's starting?" I asked fearfully. Jack started to pull Rose and me back from him with great force.

"Here we go!" He said. "Good luck, Doctor." I grasped Jack's hand as he dragged us to the side.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Donna screamed.

"When he's dying, his body repairs itself, it changes," Rose explained tearfully. "But you can't!" Dad had pulled himself up on to the ship controls and looked at us each in the eyes, sorrow evident in his face.

"I'm sorry, it's too late. I'm regenerating."


	3. Journey's End

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: First I want to thank the followers of the story, never expected anyone to be so interested in this :) And I apologise for lack of updates... I'm just finishing my A Levels at the moment so I have exams which are taking priority right now. They'll be done in a few weeks, so I should be able to write quicker then :) Also a bit of Who knowledge would come in handy when reading to get the episode plots.. Read & Review! **

His arms were outstretched and his face bent backwards, dazzling gold light erupting from his hands and neck, engulfing his entire figure and fiercely illuminating the room. It was bright, too bright. Almost blinding, but I couldn't move my eyes away. I was only just aware of Jack and Donna on either side of me, yet I was still clinging to both of them in dread. I could feel time ticking past; it seemed like hours, but I knew it only lasted seconds. Unexpectedly, dad pointed his arms to the side, with the beams of gold still gushing from his hands. It hit a glass jar on the floor in front of our feet, and abruptly all of the glistening fire extinguished. The four of us stared, disbelief smeared across our faces, as dad straightened up with a slight stumble and sniffed.

"Now then. Where were we?" He looked at us, and walked a couple of paces to bend down to the jar.

"There now," he said smiling, and blew over the glass. I looked up at Jack. Would he know what the hell happened? Apparently he didn't, because he simply gaped with the same confusion as Donna, Rose and me.

"You see?" Dad exclaimed, grinning up at us casually.

"What?" I replied.

"I used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but as soon as that was done, I didn't need to change," he explained. "I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me." I smirked. Boasting seemed to be a perfect trait for my dad.

"So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand," he continued. "My hand there. My handy spare hand." He stood up, still grinning, and focused his attention on Rose, the blonde girl I'd just met a few short minutes ago.

"Remember? Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand," He said to her. I was now entirely lost: Christmas, Sycorax… I had no idea what any of these words meant. It was also only then that I realised the jar had a whole Timelord hand suspended inside.

"What do you think?" Dad asked Rose. She stepped forwards slowly, an unreadable expression on her face, and put her hand on his chest.

"You're still you?" She asked tentatively.

"I'm still me." Dad replied with a warm smile. Rose immediately jumped up and threw her arms around dad's neck, hugging him tightly. He did the same, an entirely honest and true smile beaming. I suspected there was something between my dad and Rose; they had a kind of obvious connection, and although I'd only seen them together for a matter of minutes, they clicked. They're joy was infectious as I felt a smile creep on to my own lips, and I heard Jack let out a relieved laugh next to me.

"You can hug me, if you want," Donna said to Jack. "No really, you can hug me." I laughed as Jack suddenly became very awkward, and I leapt up to squeeze his neck and release my tension.

"And you!" Dad suddenly yelled, breaking his and Rose's contact, and chuckling happily at me.

"You!" I repeated, letting go of Jack and throwing myself at dad instead. Relief washed over me as I realised how close I came to losing him again. "I thought I'd never find you!"

"I thought you were dead!" He replied. "Must have more of your old dad in you than I thought."

"Never a bad thing," I said, smiling up at him.

"Not if it saved your life," Dad replied, still grinning, but with an edge of anxiety as his voice dropped a decibel. "And hello again, Captain!"

Dad indicated Jack. Suddenly, all the lights dimmed and we heard a loud crash, the room rocking violently.

"They've got us!" Dad yelled, rushing to the control panels. "Power's gone… some kind of chronon loop!"

"There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets," Jack began. "They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."

"You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?" Donna asked dad.

"Rose!" Dad said suddenly, a sort of realisation obviously dawning on him. "You've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe, you've seen the future. What was it?"

"It's the darkness." Rose replied sadly.

"The stars were going out," Donna supported.

"One by one," Rose nodded. "We looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this… this travelling machine, this dimension canon, so I could… well, so I could…"

"What?" Dad said with a smug grin forming.

"So I could come back," Rose replied. "Shut up!" She seemed embarrassed as dad giggled with mischief.

"Anyway, suddenly it started to work, and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead," Rose continued. "Something is destroying everything."

"In that parallel world, you said something about me." Donna asked her.

"The dimension canon could measure timelines, and it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you." Explained Rose.

"But why me?" Donna asked with exasperation. "I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp from Chiswick!" Dad and Rose both looked incredulously at her as she spoke, as if they knew better. Even I saw that Donna was not just anybody. She was more than a 'temp', whatever that was. Just then, the ship's screen lit up and beeped, indicating it's landing.

"The Dalek Crucible," Said dad. "All aboard."

From outside we heard the shrill call of the Daleks.

"The TARDIS is secured."

"Doctor, you will step forth or die."

"We'll have to go out," Dad started with little expression. "Because if we don't, they'll get in."

"You told me nothing could get through those doors." Rose said.

"You've got extrapolator shielding." Jack added.

"Last time we fought the Daleks they were scavengers and hybrids and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek empire at the height of its power. Experts at fighting TARDISes, they can do anything," Dad explained bleakly. "Right now, that wooden door is just wood."

"You've fought them before?" I asked worriedly. They must have been pretty powerful if dad had already defeated them, and they were back with a vengeance.

"Countless times." Dad nodded.

"What about your dimension jump?" Jack asked Rose.

"It needs another twenty minutes. And anyway, I'm not leaving." Rose replied.

"What about your teleport?" Dad suggested.

"Went down with the power loss." Jack replied.

"Got anything, Jenny?" Dad asked. That was the second time someone asked me for help, and I was useless.

"No, I came with Jack," I answered, slightly ashamed. "Sorry dad."

"No, it's fine," He replied. "Right then. All of us together. Donna?"

Donna was stood slightly away from us, her eyes fixated on something I couldn't see. Dad noticed this too, and walked towards her quickly.

"Donna?"

"Yeah," She said, coming out of her trance.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing else we can do." Dad said.

"No, I know." Donna replied quietly.

"Surrender, Doctor," the vile Dalek voice sounded. "And face your Dalek masters."

"Crucible on maximum alert." Another screeched.

"Daleks!" Rose laughed inside the TARDIS.

"Oh god!" Jack joined in, making a joke of his own. Dad turned to us all, still smiling despite all of the difficulties he'd already faced.

"It's been good, though, hasn't it?" He said nostalgically. "All of us, all of it. Everything we did." I didn't feel like I quite counted with that comment; I wasn't even a day old yet.

"You were brilliant." Dad said to Donna, and she nodded smiling.

"And you were brilliant," He repeated to Jack, but with more sarcasm.

"And you were brilliant," He said again to Rose.

"You will be brilliant," He finally said to me. I couldn't help grinning back. "Blimey."

"Daleks reign supreme! All hail the Daleks!"

As we stepped confidently out of dad's ship, this was all we could hear. Repetitive and shrill, just the cry of the Daleks. The shrieks were coming mainly from our left, and we all turned that way as we entered the new ship. It was massive; a huge space filled with hundreds upon thousands of Daleks, all flying around aimlessly and screeching their war-cries. Opposite us was another one of them, one of the unspeakable Daleks, cloaked in light. It was tall and red, an eyestalk somehow probing us all, and it spoke:

"Behold, Doctor. Behold the might of the true Dalek race."

None of us replied. Instead, we all just glared and ignored the evil welcome.

"Donna!" Dad turned back to his ship and called. "You're no safer in there."

It was then when I noticed Donna hadn't joined us outside on the Crucible. I saw her turn to walk out of the blue box, but the doors suddenly slammed shut. Donna was trapped.

"Doctor?" I heard her call, banging on the doors from the inside. "What have you done?"

"It wasn't me, I didn't do anything!" Dad replied slightly indignantly.

"Oi! I'm not staying behind!" Donna panicked.

"What did you do?" Shouted dad, turning back towards the red Dalek with anger.

"This is not of Dalek origin." It spat back.

"Stop it!" He hissed, while Donna was still yelling from inside. "She's my friend. Now open the door and let her out!"

"This is Time Lord treachery." The Dalek declared. Why would he shut his best friend inside all alone?

"Me?" Dad replied, voicing my thoughts exactly. "The door just closed on its own!"

"Nevertheless, the TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed." The enemy said menacingly. Suddenly the box dropped out of the room and disappeared, leaving a square hole in the ground. We ran forwards and looked down. It was a tunnel, or a tube, and a deep one at that. It looked as though it went on for lightyears, and Donna was shooting downwards in the ship. How would we get her back? We couldn't leave her!

"What are you doing?" Dad yelled angrily. "Bring it back!"

"Bring it back right now!" I repeated, reaching for my gun in my pocket. No luck. I'd left everything on Messaline.

"What have you done? Where's it going?" Dad continued, fury and rage evident.

"The Crucible has a heart of Z- neutrino energy." The Dalek replied emotionlessly. "The TARDIS will be deposited into the core."

"You can't! You've taken the defences down!" Dad spluttered. "It'll be torn apart!"

"But Donna's still in there!" Rose yelled.

"Let her go!" Jack roared.

"You'll kill her!" I bellowed.

"The female and the TARDIS will perish together. Observe," the Dalek confirmed as the image of the blue box appeared above us, bobbing around in a fiery yellow liquid. "The last child of Gallifrey is powerless."

"Please, I'm begging you. I'll do anything," Dad exclaimed fearfully. "Put me in her place! You can do anything to me, I don't care, just get her out of there!" I felt pride as my dad said this. He was the bravest person I knew I would ever meet.

"You are connected to the TARDIS. Now feel it die." The Dalek said smugly.

"Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels," Another one said, and began to count down as we watched the screen in despair. Rose walked purposefully towards dad and grabbed his hand. "…three, two, one."

"The TARDIS has been destroyed." The red Dalek uttered. "Now tell me, Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?"

"Yeah." He replied despondently.

"Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?" The Dalek mocked.

"Yeah? Feel this!" Jack shouted abruptly, pulling a revolver from his pocket and shooting at the Dalek. Another incredibly brave man.

"Exterminate!" The red thing cried, and hit the Captain with its white laser. Jack's body seized up and flashed his skeleton, before falling quickly to the floor. I clutched dad's sleeve in shock. Captain Jack Harkness was dead.

"Jack. Oh my god, oh no," Rose muttered, leaning over Jack's corpse. I joined her on the floor silently.

"Rose, Jenny, come here. Leave him." Dad whispered to us, putting his hands on our shoulders comfortingly, just as Jack had done for me earlier.

"They killed him." Rose stated.

"I know," Dad said. "I'm sorry." I couldn't believe it. It wasn't just that I was in shock, it was something else. Somehow, there was something telling me that it wasn't true. Jack wasn't dead.

"He can't be." I muttered. Dad looked at me, his eyes widening for a fraction of a second. He pulled both of us to our feet.

"Escort them to the Vault." A Dalek ordered.

"There's nothing we can do." Dad said as we all continued to gaze down at Jack's lifeless body.

"They are the playthings of Davros now." The red one said. Daleks appeared by our sides and pushed us away, directing us down a new corridor, and we left the Captain alone.

"Activate the holding cells."

Three spotlights shone down from the ceiling, one for each of us. We were in a new room, but it looked very similar to the last: dim, spacious and futuristic. The only different feature was a creature sat in a Dalek-like shell. It seemed to look more like us once, many years ago, but now it was dark and wrinkled, with brown patches where eyes should have been. It had a blue light on its forehead, and it spoke with the same coarse voice as the Daleks (but perhaps with more expression). I knew that this disgusting figure was Davros.

"Excellent. Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained." Davros said to dad.

"Still scared of me, then?" Dad replied, reaching for the edge of the light around him.

"It is time we talked, Doctor," Davros said, dodging dad's comment. "After so very long."

"No, no, no, no, no. We're not doing the nostalgia tour," Dad said. "I want to know what's happening right here, right now, because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison? You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?" I smirked appreciatively.

"We have an arrangement." Davros answered. I detected a hint of embarrassment in his voice.

"No, no, no, no, no! I've got the word!" Dad laughed. "You're the Dalek's pet!"

"So very full of fire, is he not. And to think you crossed entire universes, striding parallel to parallel to find him again." Davros said, turning and addressing Rose.

"Leave her alone." Dad ordered seriously.

"She is mine to do as I please," Davros replied menacingly, and turned slowly to look at me. "As is your daughter, Doctor."

"Do your worst." I replied, surprising myself with the amount of boldness in my voice.

"Oh, you have your father's foolishness. A trait of any Time Lord, no doubt," Davros said to me, wheeling closer. "Yet I must disappoint. You must be here, as has Miss Tyler. It was foretold. Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan."

"So cold and dark. Fire is coming. The endless flames." A high-pitched, squeaking voice projected from across the room. I let my eyes scour the surroundings until I found the source: an open Dalek, its shell destroyed, and the true form of the monster perched on top. It was tiny and fleshy, not significant or intimidating in the slightest.

"What is that thing?" Rose asked.

"You've met before," Dad replied. "The last of the Cult of Skaro. But it flew into the Time War unprotected."

"Caan did more than that. He saw time," Davros said. "Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. All of you."

"This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time. And one of them will die!" Caan said gleefully.

"Was it you, Caan? Did you kill Donna?" Dad shouted. "Why did the TARDIS door close? Tell me!"

"Oh, that's it! The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. Observe, Miss Tyler, Jenny. There he is," Davros mocked dad. "Why so shy, Doctor? Show your companion. Show your daughter. Show them your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that, too."

"I have seen. At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed." Caan giggled.

"What does that mean?" Dad yelled.

"We will discover it together. Our final journey," Davros answered, indulging devilishly in his commandeering of the conversation. "Because the ending approaches, the testing begins."

"Testing of what?" Dad asked.

"The Reality bomb." Answered Davros simply.

"Testing calibration of Reality bomb. Firing in ten rels. Nine, eight, seven…" I heard the red, 'Supreme' Dalek say through the speakers.

"Behold. The apotheosis of my genius." Davros said proudly, as a screen appeared showing a holding area with several humans stood scared inside.

"…four, three, two, one, zero," The supreme Dalek finished. "Activate planetary alignment field."

"That's Z-neutrino energy, flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string," Dad thought aloud. "No, Davros! Davros, you can't! You can't, no!"

On the screen, I saw the group of poor humans simply disintegrate into nothingness, their atoms evaporating into the atmosphere. What had they done? What the hell was Davros planning?

"Doctor, what happened?" Rose asked.

"Electrical energy, Miss Tyler," Davros replied before dad had the chance. "Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality bomb cancels its out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone, full transmission will dissolve every form of matter."

"The stars are going out." Rose said aloud, finally realising the cause of her world's problem.

"The twenty seven planets," Dad added. "They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength-"

"Across the entire universe." Davros interrupted. "Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!" I thought I followed the explanation; basically, the Daleks wanted to exterminate everything from existence, until it would be only them left. Good luck with that, Davros. You've brought just the wrong person here: my dad. He was going to stop it.

Suddenly a new screen opened above us, showing a familiar face.

"This message is for the Dalek Crucible, repeat. Can you hear me?" Martha Jones said strongly.

"Put me through!" Dad said.

"It begins," Davros said with glee. "As Dalek Caan foretold."

"The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die!" Caan laughed.

"Stop saying that!" Dad shouted with annoyance. "Put me through!"

"Doctor!" Said Martha. "I'm sorry, I had to." What did she have to do?

"Oh, but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner," Davros replied with false politeness. "State your intent."

"I've got the Oster Haagen key. Leave this planet and its people alone, or I'll use it." Martha threatened.

"Martha, no!" I shouted. I didn't know what the key did, but it must have been bad because Harriet was dead against it.

"Oster Haagen what? What's an Oster Haagen key?" Dad asked frantically.

"There's a chain of twenty five nuclear warheads placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust. If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart." Martha explained.

"What? Who invented that? Well, someone called Oster Haagen, I suppose," Dad replied exasperatedly. "Martha, are you insane?"

"The Oster Haagen key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option." Martha said calmly.

"That's never an option." Said dad.

"Don't argue with me, Doctor!" Martha shouted back, unexpectedly. "Because it's more than that. Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty seven planets for something. But what if it becomes twenty six? What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"

"She's good!" Rose exclaimed, smiling.

"Who's that?" Martha asked.

"My name's Rose," she replied. "Rose Tyler."

"Oh my god," said Martha. "He found you." Rose turned and smiled at dad.

"Second transmission, internal." A Dalek said.

"Display." The supreme Dalek said. Another screen opened next to Martha's, showing four people.

"Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls, are you receiving me? Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off." The man said. I couldn't believe it. Jack survived? The instinct I felt was right!

"Jack?" I yelled.

"He's still alive?" Rose said, repeating my thoughts. "Oh my god, that's my mum!"

"And Mickey, Captain, what are you doing?" Dad added.

"I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe," Jack said. I noticed he was holding up a small jewel-like object which had wires falling down from it. "I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up." My kind of guy.

"You can't! Where did you get a Warp Star?" Dad shouted back.

"From me!" Sarah Jane said, coming into frame. "We had no choice. We saw what happened to the prisoners-"

"Impossible," Davros said. "That face, after all these years."

"Davros. It's been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith. Remember?"

"Oh, this is meant to be. The circle of Time is closing," Davros replied. "You were there on Skaro at the very beginning of my creation."

"And I've learned how to fight since then," Sarah Jane said. "You let the Doctor go, or this Warp Star, it gets opened!"

"I'll do it," Jack warned. "Don't imagine I wouldn't."

"Now that's what I call a ransom," Rose laughed. "Doctor?"

She was looking at dad expectantly, but he was staring guiltily at the floor. I frowned at him, wondering what he could be feeling gloomy about when his friends were coming up with brilliant plans to help.

"And the prophecy unfolds." Davros said gleefully.

"The Doctor's soul is revealed. See him. See the heart of him!" Caan supported.

"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor." Davros tormented him. "You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this."

"They're trying to help." Dad defended weakly.

"Already I have seen them sacrifice today for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network."

"Who was that?" Dad asked innocently.

"Harriet Jones." I said.

"She gave her life to get you here." Rose added. Dad looked shocked and saddened by this information, which quickly turned into guilt.

"How many more? Just think. How many have died in your name?" Davros tortured him. Dad turned and looked at me with the same guilt.

"I'm alive, dad." I told him, trying to help.

"The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame," Davros continued. "This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself."

"Enough. Engage defence zero-five." The supreme Dalek called from elsewhere.

"It's the Crucible or the Earth!" Martha reminded over the screen, standing up and holding the key aloft. Suddenly, she disappeared from the image and dropped the key where it was.

"No!" She cried. The same happened to the four on the second screen; Jack, Sarah Jane, Mickey and Rose's mum all vanished and the Warp Star dropped. A moment later, all of dad's friends appeared in the same room as us, falling to the floor.

"I've got you, it's all right." Jack said, helping Martha up.

"Jack!" I called happily.

"Don't move, all of you!" Dad warned them. "Stay still."

"Guard them! On your knees, all of you. Surrender!" Davros ordered.

"Do as he says." Dad agreed. Everyone went quiet, and the five of them knelt obediently.

"The final prophecy is in place," Davros said. "The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now, detonate the Reality bomb!"

"Activate planetary alignment field," The supreme Dalek said. "Universal Reality detonation in two hundred rels."

"You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!" Dad hollered angrily, but Davros nor any of the Daleks were listening.

"Ah ha ha ha! Nothing can stop the detonation! Nothing and no one!" The fiend yelled evilly. Without warning, a new sound appeared in a dark corner of the room. It was like a strained horn, struggling to wail. It was like someone left the brakes on a ship.

"But that's-" Dad began.

"Impossible!" Davros exclaimed. In the shadowy corner, a box began to appear. There was a white light on top of it which was flashing every couple of seconds, and each time the box became bluer. It was dad's ship, and out of the doors he appeared. My dad ran out of the box that just appeared with a weapon, and he was also stood next to me. Two dads.

"Brilliant!" Jack exclaimed.

"Don't!" Dad yelled. Davros lifted his arm carefully and zapped the new dad who was running towards him. My second dad fell dramatically to the floor as the laser hit him square in the chest, and the weapon slipped away.

"Activate holding cell!" Davros ordered, and a new spotlight appeared opposite us over my second dad. Just as I thought it was over, our chance was lost, someone else rushed through the doors of dad's ship: Donna Noble. She bent down and picked up the weapon that had been blown from dad's hands.

"Doctor!" She cried. "I've got it! But I don't know what to do!" Davros struck again, pointing his laser at Donna and throwing her backwards behind some controls. The weapon was hurled away across the floor again.

"Donna! Donna!" Dad yelled anxiously. "Are you all right, Donna?"

"Destroy the weapon." Davros ordered. A Dalek obeyed and its laser hit the weapon, blowing it to pieces and rendering it useless. Our chance was well and truly gone.

"I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor," Davros said. "They are pathetic."

"How comes there are two of you?" Rose spluttered.

"Human biological metacrisis." My second dad replied.

"Never mind that, now we've got no way of stopping the Reality bomb." The first said heatedly.

"Detonation in twenty rels. Nineteen…" The supreme Dalek began.

"Stand witness, Time Lords. Stand witness, humans," Davros said, sickeningly triumphantly. "Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless, and… oh, the end of the universe has come."

The supreme Dalek's countdown continued. There was nothing any of us could do, it was futile. I looked around at everyone helplessly, hoping for something, anything, that could stop it. Any inspiration, but there was nothing. And time was running out. All of reality was about to collapse if we couldn't think fast.

"…three, two, one."

The countdown ended, but I couldn't feel anything happening. Instead, an alarm sounded in the same room.

"Mmmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous back-feed reversal loop," A woman said. "That button there!"

Donna had woken up from behind the controls, and had saved the universe. I knew she wasn't just anyone!

"System in shutdown."

"Detonation negative."

"Explain, explain, explain!" The supreme Dalek screeched.

"Donna, you can't even change a plug!" Dad said, evidently surprised.

"Wanna bet, Time Boy?" She replied cheekily, with a huge grin on her face.

"You'll suffer for this!" Davros began, lifting his arm again to zap the brand new, brilliant Donna Noble. She casually flicked a control on the panel and an electrical charge shot up Davros' raised limb, and he yelled in pain.

"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion." Donna commented sarcastically.

"Exterminate her!" Davros hollered. The Dalek's typical cry rang out at his order repeatedly. Donna was busy at the controls, and we all just stared disbelieving at the scene unfolding in front of us.

"Weapons non-functional." The Daleks said angrily.

"Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix!" Donna continued.

"How did you work that out?" Dad exclaimed. "You're-"

"Time Lord." My second dad confirmed. "Part Time Lord."

"Part human. Oh yes," Donna explained. "That was a two-way biological metacrisis. Half Doctor, Half Donna!"

"The Doctor-Donna! Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming…the Doctor-Donna." Dad said as Donna nodded knowingly back at him.

"Holding cells deactivated, and seal the Vault." Donna commentated as she used the controls. "Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work!"

The spotlights faded and we could move again. I couldn't believe it! At the last moment, when I thought there was no hope for the world at all, Donna did it. She saved everything, and in the greatest way possible.

"Stop them! Get them away from the controls!" Davros shouted hysterically.

"And spin!" Donna laughed, pressing a button and making the Daleks rotate quickly on the spot. I looked around, grinning at the sight, and laughed.

"And the other way!" Donna called as the Daleks started to spin in the opposite direction. I pulled myself together and ran across to the humans still knelt on the floor. I faced Jack first, offering my hand to help him up, and grinned at him.

"Didn't die, then?" I teased.

"Never." He replied with a chuckle. The room was suddenly busy with people rushing around, the Daleks no longer a threat to us.

"Stop this at once!" Davros screamed hopelessly. We all ignored him, and I saw Jack run into the TARDIS and return with two massive guns: one that was his from Torchwood, and the other Rose's. He passed one to Mickey, who immediately focused it on Davros himself. Meanwhile, I busied myself by pushing the spare Daleks out of the way with Rose, Martha and Sarah Jane. We eventually got over to the control panel, where Donna and my two dads were working.

"Is anyone gonna tell us what's going on?" Rose asked.

"He poured all his regeneration energy into his spare hand," Donna launched into explanation. "I touched the hand, and he grew out of that but that fed back into me. But it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life. Thank you Davros! Part human, part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor. I got his mind."

"So there's three of you?" Sarah Jane questioned.

"Three Doctors?" Rose added.

"Three dads?" I repeated.

"I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now." Jack admitted. I smirked at him.

"You're so unique the timelines were converging on you," Dad said to Donna. "Human being with a Time Lord brain."

"But you promised me, Dalek Caan. Why did you not foresee this?" Davros said, distracting us.

"Oh, I think he did. Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages, getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time." Dad explained confidently.

"This would always have happened. I only helped, Doctor." Caan spoke.

"You betrayed the Daleks." Davros accused.

"I saw the Daleks. What we have done, throughout time and space. I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed no more!"

Suddenly, the supreme Dalek appeared in the Vault and addressed its creator.

"Davros, you have betrayed us."

"It was Dalek Caan!" Davros argued.

"The Vault will be purged," the Dalek said. "You will all be exterminated." It aimed at the control panel and zapped.

"Like I was saying, feel this!" Jack yelled, and this time blew the red Dalek's top off. I laughed again. Nothing was going to stop us now!

"Oh, we've lost the magnetron!" Dad complained. "And there's only one planet left, oh, guess which one. But we can use the TARDIS!" He ran across and entered his ship, leaving the rest of us in the Vault to continue working.

"Holding Earth stability. Maintaining atmospheric shell." My other dad said.

"The prophecy must complete." Caan muttered from somewhere in the room.

"Don't listen to him." Davros said. I was at the controls, trying to ignore the irrelevant threats being made.

"I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor."

"He's right," the second dad said, stopping fiddling with the controls. "Because with or without a Reality bomb, this Dalek empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos."

I looked at him in the eyes, wondering what he was going to do.

"They've got to be stopped!"

"Just wait for the Doctor!" Donna told him.

"I am the Doctor!" He said darkly. "Maximising Dalekanium power feeds, blasting them back!"

I heard explosions all around us, and the Daleks on the sides of the Vault were exploding. Dad ran out of the box with fire in his eyes.

"What have you done?" He shouted at himself.

"Fulfilling the prophecy." He replied ominously.

"Do you know what you've done?" Dad repeated. "Now get in the TARDIS! Everyone! All of you, inside! Run!"

We all followed the instructions and ran quickly towards the blue box.

"In, in, in, in!" Dad yelled outside, and the other version stood inside of the door counting everyone inside.

"Martha! Donna! Sarah Jane! Rose! Jackie! Jenny! Jack! Mickey!"

Inside, we gathered around the console and waited for dad to return from the Crucible. I was stood between Rose and Sarah Jane.

"I'm Jenny," I smiled at them both. "I haven't actually introduced myself yet, I'm the Doctor's daughter."

"You're really his daughter?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, really," I replied with a grin. "And you're his, what, friend? Or more?"

"Well, friends," She said, looking down at her hands. "Yeah."

It was then that dad flew back through the doors, closing them behind him, and smiling at all of his friends.

"And off we go!"


	4. Journeys Never Over

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Thankyou to those who have followed this story so far! I realise the last chapter was a bit wordy and probably too much episode content/speech and not enough creativity on my part... I hope this one is better! It's based on the end of Journey's End, so I had a little more room to make up my own scenes. Thanks for sticking with it through the last chapter though if you have! Reviews are welcome :)**

"But what about the Earth? It's stuck in the wrong part of space!"

"I'm on it… Torchwood Hub, this is the Doctor. Are you receiving me?"

I leaned past Rose to look at Dad's screen, just in time to see Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones in the Torchwood Hub hurrying over to their own monitor.

"Loud and clear," Gwen replied. "Is Jack there?"

"Can't get rid of him." Dad muttered cheekily. I grinned across the control panel at Jack, who was giggling to himself already. Either he and dad were really good friends, or Jack was just an easy going guy. I felt like it was the latter.

"Jack, what's her name?" Dad asked, pointing at the screen.

"Gwen Cooper."

"Tell me, Gwen Cooper, are you from an old Cardiff family?"

"Yes," Gwen answered, sounding confused. "All the way back to the eighteen hundreds."

"Ah, thought so," Dad said smiling. Rose was stood close, also grinning at Torchwood in understanding. "Spacial genetic multiplicity!"

"Oh yeah!" Rose exclaimed.

"It's a funny old world!" Dad said. Everyone else in the room had the same oblivious expression as me; Rose must have travelled alone with dad for a while.

"Now, Torchwood, I want you to open up that Rift Manipulator. Send all the power to me." Dad instructed confidently.

"Doing it now, sir." I heard Ianto reply.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"It's a tow rope." Dad replied slightly absent-mindedly. My pod felt like it was being towed after I left Messaline. Could dad have done it on purpose? No, that was stupid. He didn't even know I was alive.

"Now then, Sarah," said Dad, snapping me out of my thoughts. "What was your son's name?"

"Luke, he's called Luke," Sarah Jane replied. "And the computer's called Mr Smith!"

"Calling Luke and Mr Smith, this is the Doctor. Come on, Luke! Shake a leg!"

I heard rushed footsteps from the monitor, then a boy's voice.

"Is mum there?"

Sarah Jane immediately leapt up and down, cheering and laughing.

"Oh, she's fine and dandy," Dad replied. "Now, Mr Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the TARDIS. You got that?"

"I regret, I will need remote access to TARDIS base code numerals." A robotic voice spoke.

"Oh blimey, that's going to take a while." Dad said, disheartened.

"No, no, no, let me!" Sarah Jane called, rushing around the console to dad. "K9, out you come!"

Another mechanical-sounding voice spoke, this one higher pitched than the last. I couldn't see what was speaking, but Rose and Mickey looked bemused.

"Affirmative, Mistress." It said.

"Oh, good dog!" Dad exclaimed happily. "K9, give Mr Smith the base code."

"Master," The voice replied obediently. "TARDIS base code now being transferred. The process is simple."

The second dad stood on my left was grinning manically, and I turned to him, laughing in bewilderment. The original version acknowledged everyone again, now his plan was in action. He began walking the whole way around the console, and around his friends.

"Now then, you lot," He started instructing. "Sarah, hold that down. Mickey, you hold that… Because you know why this TARDIS is always rattling about the place? Jenny, this one, here. Rose? That, there. It's designed to have six pilots, and I have to do it single-handed. Martha, keep that level – but not anymore! Jack, there you go, steady that. Now we can fly this thing – no, Jackie, no. Not you, don't touch anything. Just stand back. Like it's meant to be flown! We've got the Torchwood Rift looped around the TARDIS by Mr Smith. We're gonna fly planet Earth back home."

Flying a whole entire planet across the atmosphere? Who could say that wasn't awesome? My dad was brilliant!

"Right then. Off we go!" Dad smiled simply, back at the monitor between Rose and Martha. He pulled down a lever and I felt the tug of the space rope tied to the planet. I somehow knew what to do to fly the ship, like before in my pod. Maybe it wasn't the war knowledge in my head. Maybe it was the Time Lord. I smiled to myself, and grabbed a lever on the bottom of the panel. Everyone was working together as a team: Dad's team. Team Doctor! I started laughing, and looked across to see Jack and Martha nattering cheerfully as they worked. Donna was walking casually behind everyone, observing and encouraging. Dad was helping Rose on my right, and I watched him admiringly as he looked up and smiled. Suddenly, the ship sped up a little. There was a bump as it released the planet back to its rightful place.

"We did it!" I yelled happily. Everyone was cheering, laughing and clapping. It was a big impromptu celebration, everyone congratulating each other. I was pulled into a hug with Rose, and I slowly made my way around the console, embracing everyone: Martha, Donna, Sarah Jane, Jack, Mickey, Jackie, and both of my Dads.

"Well done, Jenny!" My first dad said as he lifted me in the air slightly.

"Me?" I laughed back. "You did it, Dad."

"Well…" He replied with a giggle, setting me back down on my feet and continuing to the next person.

A little later, Dad landed the ship on Earth to take his friends home. I waited inside as the big group of us became smaller and smaller with people leaving. Sarah Jane was first, and Jack and Martha followed.

"Jenny!" Jack said just before he went outside to say goodbye to Dad. "You are brilliant. I'm gonna miss you, ya know."

"Why thanks, Captain!" I laughed, jumping up and hugging him tight. "It was great to meet you."

"Likewise." He whispered in my ear. Jack let me down with a chuckle and a sparkle in his eye.

"I'll see you around, Jenny," Martha said, holding out her arms to hug goodbye. "Remember, you're the Doctor's daughter. He lost his whole race, so he's going to be very protective over you. Don't get too annoyed with him, right?"

"Right," I replied, nodding. "I expect I'll see you both soon."

"Most likely." They both agreed, smiling at each other, and turned to leave the ship. I started back towards the console as Mickey walked quickly past me, and out of the doors.

"See you," He mumbled as he left.

"Bye, Mickey." I replied. It was just my second Dad, Donna, Rose and Jackie left by the console now. They were all chatting happily, apart from Donna, who was talking on some sort of phone.

"Hey!" I said as I reached them. Rose turned to me, smiling.

"Hi!" She replied. "Mum, do you know who this is?"

Jackie looked me up and down, evidently confused.

"Jenny. One of the Doctor's friends." She guessed.

"Bit more than just a friend!" Rose grinned. She turned to my second Dad. "You wanna tell her?"

"Jenny's my daughter, Jackie." He said smugly.

"Daughter?" Jackie exclaimed. "You're the Doctor's daughter?"

"Yeah," I said. "Why does everyone react like that?"

"Well, the Doctor's not really the Dad-type, is he?" Jackie reasoned.

"Hey!" the Dad stood next to me retorted. "I've been a Dad before!"

"Wha-" Jackie started, but was interrupted by my first Dad strolling back into the room.

"Just time for one last trip," He announced. "Dårlig Ulv Stranden!" He looked over to himself as he said this. The second version stared back with a suddenly serious expression.

"Better known as…" Dad muttered.

"Bad Wolf Bay?" Rose questioned sharply. No one answered.

The ship landed abruptly and everyone was quiet. I wasn't sure why, but I followed suit. Jackie and the new version of Dad walked out of the doors first. Rose looked out, staying where she was for a few more seconds. She turned her head quickly back to glare solemnly at Dad. He avoided her eyes and found something very interesting on the floor to look at instead. Rose's lip quivered, and she walked outside slowly ahead of us. I frowned at Donna. She looked back sadly, and pushed me towards the doors.

Dad had landed the ship in a huge open space. It was dim and dreary, and the floor was wet and unstable. I looked to the left and saw a big expanse of water, with waves rolling around a little way from us.

"Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?" Rose questioned loudly.

"You're back home." Dad sighed.

"And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened. It's dimensional retroclosure," Donna added impressively. "See, I really get that stuff now."

"No, but I spent all that time trying to find you, I'm not going back now!" Rose argued, her voice wavering.

"But you've got to," Dad said, stepping closer to her. "Because we saved the universe, but at a cost."

I was listening intently. Something about the tone in Dad's voice, and the whole scene in front of me, made me desperately sad.

"And the cost is him," he continued, nodding towards the second version of himself. "He destroyed the Daleks, he committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."

"You made me." The other Dad started, slightly angrily.

"Exactly. You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge. And you weren't made for it, not like Jenny," Dad replied. "Remind you of someone?" He directed at Rose. Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes.

"That's me, when we first met. And you made me better," Dad explained. "Now you can do the same for him."

"But he's not you." Rose muttered.

"He needs you," Dad replied. "That's very me."

Dad shrugged his shoulders and sighed, indicating his openness. I wondered whether he'd ever been this exposed to the girl he obviously loved before.

"But it's better than that, though," Donna interjected. "Don't you see what he's trying to give you? Tell her, go on."

"I look like him, I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything," The Dad stood behind Rose said. "Except I've only got one heart."

"Which means?"

"I'm part human," He said simply. "Specifically the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life, Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you, if you want."

"You'll grown old at the same time as me?" Rose asked slowly, facing the human Time Lord behind her.

"Together." He smiled. Rose began to lift her hand to his chest, when the ship made a loud revving sound. We all looked around quickly.

"We've got to go." My Dad said. "This reality is sealing itself off, forever."

We turned back to the blue box, but were interrupted by Rose.

"It's still not right!" She shouted. "Because the Doctor's still you."

"And I'm him." Dad replied.

"All right. Both of you, answer me this." Rose said more confidently, bringing the two identical men together either side of her. "When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me?" She looked at the first version. "Go on, say it."

"I said Rose Tyler." He said.

"Yeah, and how was that sentence gonna end?" She asked, but I think she already knew the real answer.

"Does it need saying?" Dad replied hesitantly. This was the first time he'd let me down. Rose stared at him helplessly for a couple of seconds, before turning to the second man.

"And you, Doctor?" She repeated. "What was the end of that sentence?"

He moved his body close to hers and leaned forwards, whispering something in her ear. Rose said nothing, just stared at him again as he gazed back. Suddenly, she grabbed his jacket and pulled him forwards into a passionate embrace. I saw their lips touch and their eyes close, before Dad turned back to Donna and me and pushed us into the box quickly. He almost ran over to the console and began to fly the ship as I looked at Donna with sadness, at a loss for words. Donna shook her head at me, and walked up towards the middle of the room. Dad was now leaning miserably against one of the pillars around the edge of the room.

"I thought we could try the planet Felspoon," She began casually. "Just because. What a good name, Felspoon. Apparently it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move, can you imagine? Jenny, how does Felspoon sound?"

"Great!" I replied, following her lead and acting entirely normally.

"And how do you know that?" Dad asked Donna quietly.

"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine." She smiled at him.

"And how does that feel?" He questioned. I looked at him inquisitively, certain that he knew something more.

"Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto Bene! Great big universe packed into my brain," She started. "You know you can fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hotbinding the fragment links and superseding the binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary… I'm fine!"

Donna had repeated herself several times and looked slightly scared at herself. Dad stood up straight and stared worriedly at her.

"Nah, never mind Felspoon," She continued nonchalantly. "You know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin! I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin? Charlie Chester? Charlie Brown? No, he's fiction, friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton."

Donna gasped and leaned over the controls in pain this time. Dad and me both rushed over with concern. I put my hand on her shoulder consolingly.

"Oh my god." She panted.

"Do you know what's happening?" Dad asked her calmly.

"Yeah." She answered, looking up.

"There's never been a human Time Lord metacrisis before now. And you know why." He continued.

"Because there can't be." Donna finished. If Donna couldn't exist, what was going to happen to her? Dad couldn't lose all his friends after having them all around at once.

"I want to stay." Donna said earnestly, starting to move controls again.

"Look at me," Dad said. "Donna, look at me."

"I was going to be with you forever." She said, stopping what she was doing and looking at him. My hearts almost broke.

"I know." Dad said sadly.

"The rest of my life, travelling in the TARDIS. The Doctor Donna," She said tearfully. "No. Oh my god, I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back!"

"Donna. Oh, Donna Noble," Dad started emptily. "I am so sorry. But we had the best of times." What was he going to do?

"No!" Donna panicked.

"The best," he said. "Goodbye." Dad put his fingers on Donna's temple and closed his eyes as she continued to fight against him. He breathed in sharply, and Donna Noble fell silent in his arms. I looked at Dad in shock. He held Donna close to him and looked back, his eyes full of sadness and guilt.

"It's not your fault," I whispered. "Whatever it is, I promise, Dad. It's not your fault."

He remained silent, and looked down at his best friend. He laid her down on one of the chairs at the edge of the room and turned back to the console, starting to fly his ship.

We landed on an empty street. I opened the doors on to a road, where opposite there was a row of houses. It was dark. I turned back into the room and held the doors open as Dad carried the sleeping Donna outside. He walked with her across the street and stopped in front of one of the houses, placing Donna carefully on the floor across his knees.

"Knock on the door, Jenny." He told me. I knocked four times, and heard a man call from inside.

"Donna?"

The old man threw the door open and looked down at Dad, fear on his face.

"Help me!" Dad said. The three of us lifted Donna inside and carried her upstairs. Dad laid her on the bed that the old man indicated.

"What have you done to my daughter?" Sylvia Noble asked Dad viciously a little later. We were downstairs in another room, Dad and me on one sofa, and Donna's family on another.

"He didn't do anything!" I started angrily, but Dad shushed me.

"She took my mind into her own head. But that's a Time Lords consciousness." He explained. "All that knowledge, it was killing her."

"But she'll get better now?" Wilfred Mott asked anxiously.

"I had to wipe her mind completely. Every trace of me, Jenny, or the TARDIS, anything we did together, anywhere we went, had to go."

"All those wonderful things she did." Wilf said sadly.

"I know," Dad replied, leaning forwards. "But that version of Donna is dead. Because if she remembers, just for a second, she'll burn up. You can never tell her. You can't mention me or any of it for the rest of her life."

"But the whole world's talking about it, we travelled across space." Sylvia argued. I could see where Donna got it from.

"It'll just be a story," Dad said simply. "One of those Donna Noble stories where she missed it all again."

"But she was better with you-" Wilf began.

"Don't say that!" Sylvia argued.

"No, she was!" The old man snapped back.

"I just want you to know there are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. That there are people living in the light, and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand million light years away. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. And for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe." Dad said with pride.

"She still is," Sylvia retorted. "She's my daughter."

"Then maybe you should tell her that once in a while." Dad muttered angrily. Sylvia's eyes lit up in rage, just as Donna burst through the door.

"I was asleep!" She exclaimed. "On my bed, in my clothes, like a flippin' kid! What did you let me do that for?" She looked down at her phone, just as she noticed Dad and me sat in front of her.

"Don't mind me, Donna." She introduced herself.

"John Smith," Dad said, standing and holding out his hand to her. "And this is my daughter, Annie."

"Hi." I said.

"Mr Smith and Annie were just leaving." Sylvia mumbled.

"My phone's gone mad," Donna said absent-mindedly. "Thirty two texts, Vena's gone barmy! She's saying planets in the sky! What have I missed now? Nice to meet you."

And with that, Donna left the room.

"As I said, I think you should go." Sylvia repeated.

A few minutes later I was back in Dad's ship, alone. Dad went to say a final and subtle goodbye to Donna, and I watched him on the monitor now talking to Wilf, her grandad, on the porch. It was raining. The perfect weather for the mood, really.

Dad stumbled inside, soaking wet, and threw his jacket on the side. I looked at him, wondering if it was OK to talk, or whether I should just leave him.

"So, are you staying?" He asked me suddenly.

"Um, I thought you said I could?" I replied warily.

"No, I wasn't saying you had to leave, I'd love you to come," He said. "I just thought, you know, you might not want to travel around with your Dad."

"Of course I do!" I exclaimed. "I'm not gonna see half the brilliant things on my own that I would with you, in your ship- what do you call it, the?"

"TARDIS," He replied, smiling for the first time in a while. "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space."

"TARDIS," I repeated. "Good name."

"Yes," He agreed. "So, where do you want to start?"

"Oooh… somewhere good. Somewhere new. Somewhere… snowy!" I laughed.

"I've got the perfect place." Dad said, beginning to fly the TARDIS. I sat down on the seats, preparing myself for the adventures I was about to go on, and relaxing for the first time since I was born.

"So," I said. "What's the deal with Captain Jack Harkness?"

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: And off they go! This is where I would have made Jenny the Doctor's official companion had I been a Who writer .. You can probably guess which episode they're heading to next, but that chapter probably won't be up for a few weeks now. Exams start up again this week, after that I have work experience, and straight afterwards I'm going on holiday! Busy times.. Review :)**


	5. The Next Doctor

I stepped out of the TARDIS eagerly. I didn't know where I was or when I was, but it was beautiful. A brave new world.

We had landed under a stone archway, and there was snow either side. I followed Dad, who had left the TARDIS after me and locked the door, to the right. He grinned as he passed me. I laughed back, and stepped from the shadow of the arch out on to the bright, happy street. The pure white snow was strewn generously over every little bit of floor, and children were running around jovially. There were several small stalls set up in the centre, one selling hot chestnuts. A man dressed formally in dark clothes and a hat nodded as he passed.

"Good afternoon." He said. I smiled back as he strolled by, and continued rotating, taking in every inch of the wonderful new world. Eventually I was stood opposite Dad again, who stretched out his arms with a cheesy grin as if to say, "Here we are!"

"So, where and when are we?" I asked him.

"Well, we're in London, on Earth," he replied, scratching his head. "But as to when we are…"

He looked around, confused, and suddenly pointed to a young boy stood a few feet from us.

"You there, boy. What day is this?"

"Christmas Eve, sir." The boy replied politely.

"What year?" Dad continued.

"You thick or something?" The boy said cheekily as I laughed behind Dad.

"Oi!" Dad exclaimed jokingly, to both the kid and me. "Just answer the question."

"Year of our Lord, 1851, sir." The boy said.

"Right. Nice year. Bit dull." Dad replied, muttering the last bit under his breath just so that I could hear.

"Dull?" I said out loud. "Why did you bring me here if it's dull?"

"DOCTOR!" We suddenly heard a woman scream. I looked up a Dad, raising my eyebrow.

"Who, me?" He said with a grin, grabbing my hand and pulling me into a run towards the voice.

The woman continued shouting Dad's name as we rushed down alleyways towards her. All that was going through my head was how did this girl, whoever she was, know Dad? And more to the point, how did she know he was here?

"Doctor!" She screamed again as we reached her. She was dark-skinned and tall, dressed in deep red and black corseted dress with a white blouse underneath.

"Don't worry, don't worry! Stand back," Dad said to her. "What have we got here?"

The girl was staring at a pair of large double doors in the wall opposite. Something behind them was growling and snarling aggressively.

"Ooh, okay. I've got it. Whatever's behind that door, I think you should get out of here." Dad warned the woman.

"Doctor!" She continued shouting, staring at Dad as if he was completely insane.

"No, I'm standing right here," Dad confirmed. "Hello!"

"Don't be stupid," she exclaimed. "Who are you?"

"He's the Doctor." I said.

"Doctor who?" She yelled.

"Just the Doctor." Dad replied simply.

"Well, there can't be two of you!" She exclaimed. Two of them? Well, yes, there was two. But one was trapped on a parallel world with Rose, so they couldn't both be here. Suddenly, another man ran up to us from the opposite direction.

"Where the hell have you been?" the woman yelled at him.

"Right then, don't worry. Stand back. What have we got here, then?" The man said.

"Hold on, hold on," Dad exclaimed at the new man. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor. Simply, the Doctor," he answered. "The one, the only, and the best."

What the hell was happening? This wasn't the Doctor. Dad was the Doctor, and this wasn't my Dad. He couldn't be; he looked completely different, and I couldn't feel the Time Lord in him. I couldn't detect any other species, either. The other Dad, the metacrisis one, was identical to the man stood right next to me, the man I met on Messaline. This guy, dressed in a red waistcoat and a long brown coat, wasn't the metacrisis Doctor, and he wasn't my real Dad, either. So why was he saying that?

"Rosita, give me the sonic screwdriver." The man said.

"The what?" Dad exclaimed, staring at him.

"Now quickly, get back to the TARDIS." He ordered.

"Back to the what?"

"If you could stand back, sir, and you, miss. This is a job for a Time Lord." The man said, indicating Dad and me.

"Job for a what Lord?"

Suddenly, the doors burst open and a huge black animal was crouched creepily in their place. It was hairy and wild, with a head covered in silver metal. I leaned forwards to get a closer look at the beast, but Dad quickly threw his arm in front of me.

"Oh, that's different." He said.

"Oh, that's new." The other man repeated similarly. Dad reached inside his coat and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the creature heroically. The man did the same, but he pulled out a thin metal stick with nothing particularly special about it.

"Allons-y!" They shouted simultaneously.

"I've been hunting this beast for a good fortnight," The man said to Dad. "Now step back, sir."

Abruptly the creature leapt on to the wall and started crawling like an insect higher and higher.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Some sort of primitive conversion, like they took the brain of a cat or a dog." Dad replied, not very helpfully.

"Well talking's all very well. Rosita?" The man criticised.

"I'm ready." The woman whose voice we followed was stood next to him holding a long thick rope curled into a coil. She handed it to the man, who turned to us smugly.

"Now, watch and learn." He lifted the rope above his head, spinning it, and then threw an end up towards the creature. Like a lasso, it caught the beast around its waist in one try.

"Excellent," the man said triumphantly. "Now then, let's pull this timorous beastie down to earth."

Instead of pulling it down, however, the man was lifted into the air as the creature just carried on crawling up the wall. I giggled to myself. He was a bit like Dad, then.

"Or not." Dad muttered.

"I might be in a little bit of trouble," the man called down to us as he clung to the rope.

"Nothing changes," Dad called back. "I've got you!"

Dad grabbed the end of the rope lying across the floor, and was lifted up himself. Both Doctors were gradually elevating higher and higher up the building, and were completely helpless and hopeless. I groaned at them.

"You idiots!" The girl yelled.

"Call yourselves heroes?" I laughed.

"Perhaps you could pull?" I heard the man shout down to Dad calmly.

"I am pulling," Dad called back. "From this position, I couldn't not pull, could I?" The beast was nearing the top of the building. I watched it, looking up with its cold metal eyes, and evidently deciding to take a different route as it leapt through window.

"Uh oh," I said aloud, to no one in particular. The man noticed this happen too.

"Then I suggest you let go, sir." He said to Dad.

"I'm not letting you out of my sight, Doctor," I heard Dad shout back. "Don't you recognise me?"

"No, should I? Have we met? This is hardly the time to go through my social calend-" The man replied, hitting the window at the end of his sentence, and slipping inside. In only three more seconds, Dad had involuntarily followed the beast and the man into the building, clinging still to the rope.

"Oh, brilliant," I sighed.

"They're being dragged along fast," The girl said to me. "We've got to help, come on!" She ran with surprising speed across the slippery white floor, and up a flight of stone steps. I followed her quickly, because this was the direction that Dad was going, too. At the top of the steps, there was a red axe leaning against the wall. The girl grabbed its wooden handle, and we burst into the room where the two men were being pulled across the floor at top speed. As life-threatening as it was, I couldn't help myself smiling slightly at the sight. This grin was quickly wiped from my face, however, as I noticed the beast heading for another window, and I knew immediately what it was planning.

"STOP!" I yelled. The girl stampeded forwards, raising the axe high above her head, and slammed it down against the floor. I rushed towards her, and saw that she'd hit the rope just before the man's grip. I let out a relieved sigh.

"Quick thinking, well done," I congratulated the girl. The two men were laughing uncontrollably in front of us.

"Well, I'm glad you think it's so funny," The girl shouted. "You're mad, both of you!"

"Do you purposely try to get yourself killed?" I asked Dad, though I wasn't sure whether to be angry or amused.

"No!" Dad replied back, still laughing.

"Well, seems like that to me," I said. "Because in all of the three places I've been with you, you've almost died."

"Oh," He said, standing up and giggling sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He pulled me into a hug, and I wrapped my arms around his neck tightly.

"We can't lose each other again, Dad," I whispered in his ear.

"I know, I'm sorry, Jenny." He replied quietly, and no longer laughing. I heard the girl continue telling off the other man as I broke away from Dad.

"You could've got killed!" She yelled.

"But evidently we did not," The man replied jokingly. "Oh, I should introduce Rosita." He said, turning to us and changing the subject. "My faithful companion, always telling me off."

"Well, they do, don't they?" Dad said smiling at the girl. "Rosita. Good name. Hello, Rosita."

With a grunt, the girl said to the man, "Now I'll have to go and dismantle the traps. All that for nothing. And we've only got twenty minutes till the funeral, don't forget! Then back to the TARDIS, right?" I frowned at her as she turned and walked off. Dad glanced down at me as I raised my eyebrows, and he suppressed a grin.

"Funeral?" He said to the man, as we followed the girl back down the steps and outside.

"Oh, long story," He replied casually. "Not my own, not yet. Oh, I'm not as young as I was."

"Well, not as young as you were when you were me." Dad said.

"When I was who?"

"You really don't recognise me?" Dad asked sadly.

"Not at all." The man said.

"But you're the Doctor!" Dad exclaimed.

"No he's not!" I interrupted.

"I do believe I am the Doctor, miss." The man replied to me.

"Then why don't you know me, either?" I asked him suspiciously.

"Good point," Dad nodded. "But you're the next Doctor. Or the next but one. A future Doctor anyway… no, no, don't tell me how it happened. Although, I hope I don't just trip over a brick. That'd be embarrassing. Then again, painless. Worse ways to go, depends on the brick."

"You're gabbling, sir," The man stated. "Now might I ask, who are you exactly?"

"No, I'm, er, I'm just… Smith. John Smith, and this is Annie, my d- niece," Dad mumbled. I turned and glared at him in confusion. "But we've heard all about you, Doctor. Bit of a legend, if I say so myself."

"Modesty forbids me to agree with you, sir, but yes. Yes, I am." The man replied smugly.

"A legend with certain memories missing, am I right?" Dad asked, like a detective.

"How do you know that?" The man snapped.

"You've forgotten us." Dad replied.

"Great swathes of my life have been stolen away. When I turn my mind to the past, there's nothing." He explained. My mind was calculating: Time Lords could regenerate, Dad almost did when that Dalek shot him, and I guessed that was how I came back to life. This man could have been a future version of Dad. But where was I, if that was true?

"Going how far back?" I heard Dad say.

"Since the Cybermen. Masters of that hellish wall-scuttler and old enemies of mine, now at work in London town," The man replied. "You won't believe this, Mr Smith, Miss Smith. But they are creatures from another world."

"Really?" Dad said in mock amazement, looking down at me with a hint of a grin.

"Wow!" I said, following his lead.

"It's said they fell onto London, out of the sky in a blaze of light. And they found me. Something was taken. And something was lost." The man continued. "What was I like, in the past?"

"I don't think we should say, sorry," Dad said quickly, as we looked worriedly at each other. "Got to be careful with memory loss. One wrong word." My mind thought back to Donna, poor Donna Noble, at Dad's words.

"It's strange, though," The man said slowly. "I talk of Cybermen from the stars, and you don't blink, Mr Smith. Neither of you."

"Ah, don't blink!" Dad suddenly shouted, making me jump. "Remember that? Whatever you do, don't blink? The blinking and the statues? Sally and the angels? No?" I frowned. Even I was lost now.

"You're a very odd man." The man said to Dad.

"Hmm, I still am," Dad commented. "Something's wrong here."

"Oh, the funeral!" The man exclaimed, suddenly remembering where he was supposed to be. "The funeral's at two o'clock. It's been a pleasure, Mr Smith, Miss Smith. Don't breathe a word of it."

"Oh, but can't we come with you?" Dad called as the man walked hurriedly away.

"It's far too dangerous! And it is not proper for ladies to attend funerals, especially ones for those they did not know," The man called back. "Rest assured, I shall keep this city safe. Oh, and merry Christmas, Mr Smith, miss!"

"Merry Christmas!" Dad called back. He began to follow once the man had rushed around the corner, but I grabbed his coat and stopped him from moving.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"He's a future version of me, a future Doctor. Your future Dad," He began.

"He's not my Dad," I muttered. Dad ignored me, and carried on.

"He's lost his memories, though. That's why he doesn't remember you, or me."

"But where am I if that is the future you?" I asked eagerly.

"I don't know," Dad replied. "But we'll find out what happened, and get his memories back." I nodded, and smiled in agreement. Dad grinned back, and started after the man.

"Wait!" I said. He turned around, bouncing on the balls of his feet, obviously desperate to set off. "Why do you keep calling me Annie?"

"Like I said, one word can affect memories, especially when they're lost," He explained. "And sometimes, it's better to give fake names. You never know who's listening. So, it's Annie for now, shortened from anomaly."

"OK, Dad," I said happily. "Annie it is."

"Oh, and don't call me Dad here," He said. "Annie Smith is John Smith's niece – the daughter of his _much _older brother. I don't look old enough to be your father."

"Don't flatter yourself, Uncle John." I snorted, and strolled around the corner, ahead of Dad, who quickly caught up.

We followed the 'Doctor's' footsteps imprinted in the cold snow, and eventually reached a churchyard, where the man and Rosita were stood a little away with their backs to us. They looked as though they were trying to keep hidden, and as Dad and me peered around a brick wall at the scene, I realised that they were using similar tactics to us. I squinted across at the pair, watching them talk. This man was displaying some signs that he was my Dad sometime in the future, but I still refused to believe it.

"The late Reverend Fairchild, leaving his place of residence for the last time…" I heard the Doctor say to Rosita.

"We need to get inside that house," Dad whispered, indicating the old building stood quaintly next to the Doctor in front of us.

"Front door?" I suggested, smiling excitedly.

"My thoughts exactly, Jen," he replied, grinning back. "Come on." Dad grabbed my hand and we started walking briskly, yet discretely, behind the pair we had been spying on. As we passed, I heard Rosita mutter angrily "don't mind me saving your life, that's work for a woman, isn't it?" but neither of them noticed us. We carried on walking until we reached the door, and Dad pulled out the sonic screwdriver from his coat.

"Jenny, keep watch," He said to me. "Make sure no one sees us." I nodded, and peeked around the corner that we had just come from. I saw Rosita stomping away in the opposite direction, but no one else.

"And in we go!" Dad said, holding open the door for me, screwdriver still in his hand. I walked inside quickly, shivering as I realised the cold was getting to my skin. I was still only wearing the green T-shirt I was born in on Messaline.

"Are you OK?" Dad asked immediately, looking down with concern.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just a little cold, that's all." I replied with a smile. Suddenly, there was a quiet shuffling sound coming from the opposite end of the corridor, as if someone was fiddling with the lock on the outside. Dad strode over as I quickly shut the front door behind us, and followed him. He sonicked again, and yanked the door open, revealing the Doctor bent down at lock height with the thin metal stick in his hand. He looked up at us in confusion.

"Hello!" Dad and me said in unison.

"How did you get in?" The man asked, surprised.

"Front door." I replied.

"I'm good at doors," Dad continued. "Do you mind my asking, is that your sonic screwdriver?" He indicated the stick in the man's hand.

"Yes, I'd be lost without it." The man smiled proudly, getting to his feet.

"But it's just a metal stick," I started.

"Yes, Annie's right. It's an ordinary screwdriver," Dad said. "How's it sonic?"

"Well, it makes a noise," The man replied, tapping the object on the wall. "That's sonic, isn't it?" Dad and me glanced at each other, both frowning.

"Now, since we're acting like common burglars, I suggest we get out of plain view." The man said, stepping inside the house and shutting the back door. The three of us looked at each other, unsure of what to do next. After a few awkward seconds, the Doctor started talking merrily.

"So, Mr Smith, Miss Smith. What are you here for?" He asked us, clapping his hands together. We looked at each other, Dad reaching his hand behind his neck with unease.

"To help," I said. "To help you, with your… investigation."

"Ah!" The man exclaimed. "Excellent. We'll start in here, shall we?"

We were in a large room, religiously decorated, with a couple of archways and several ornaments scattered about. There was an ornate mirror on the wall with a swirling gold frame, and at the opposite end of the room, a tree with red baubles hanging from the branches. The curtains were partially closed, so the room was dim.

"This investigation of yours, what's it about?" Dad asked the Doctor, as we were all searching through the room.

"It started with a murder," The Doctor began.

"Oh good," Dad replied. "I mean bad, but whose?" I giggled at him.

"Mr Jackson Lake, a teacher of mathematics from Sussex," The Doctor said, ignoring Dad's mistake. "He came to London three weeks ago and died a terrible death."

"Cybermen?" I asked, remembering the man telling us about them earlier.

"It's hard to say, miss. His body was never found. But then it started," He replied miserably. "More secret murders, then abductions. Children stolen away in silence." Dad shot a concerned look at me.

"So whose house is this?" He asked, keeping the man talking.

"The latest murder. The Reverend Aubrey Fairchild, found with burns to his forehead, like some advanced form of electrocution."

"But who was he?" I asked.

"Was he important?" Dad added.

"You ask a lot of questions." The Doctor said to us.

"We're your companions." Dad replied, smiling at him. The man sighed, and continued: "The Reverend was a pillar of the community, a member of many parish boards. A keen advocate of children's charities."

"Children again, Da- Uncle." I commented to Dad, almost blowing our story. The Doctor didn't seem to notice, luckily.

"Good point, _niece_," Dad replied, emphasising the last word. "But why would the Cybermen want him dead? And what's his connection to the first death, this Jackson Lake?" The Doctor paused.

"It's funny," he started, his voice much quieter and weaker than before. "I seem to be telling you everything, as if you've engendered some sort of trust. You seem familiar, both of you. Especially you, Mr Smith. I know your face. But how?"

"I wonder," Dad muttered. "I can't help noticing you're wearing a fob watch."

"Is that important?"

"Legend has it that the memories of a Time Lord can be contained within a watch," Dad said ominously, moving towards the Victorian man. "Do you mind?" Dad reached for the man's watch as he passed it over. It was small and silver, and I stopped rummaging through a pile of books to watch Dad.

"It's said that if it's opened…" He continued, his voice mysterious and intriguing. He pressed the tiny button on top of the watch, and it flicked open. I was expecting something grand and exciting, but all that happened was that a lot of metal cogs and pieces fell out on to the floor.

"Oh," Dad groaned slightly.

"Maybe not, Uncle." I sighed at him.

"It was more for decoration." The Doctor chuckled nervously.

"Yeah," Dad mumbled, and quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, alien infiltration!"

"Yes, just look for anything different. Possibly metal. Anything that doesn't seem to belong. Perhaps a mechanical device that could fit no earthly engine." The man explained, turning back to whatever he was searching through. Dad moved back across to the other side of the room, pulling me gently with him.

"Do you still think he's you?" I whispered.

"I don't know," Dad murmured. "But there's something not right, Jen." He took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and started scanning.

"It could even seem to be organic, but unlike any organism of the natural world," The Doctor called over to us. "Shhh, what's that noise?" He turned abruptly, eyes wide, and listening intently.

"Oh, it's just me whistling," Dad said, demonstrating a convincing screwdriver impression. I smirked at him, and he grinning subtly back at me. "I wonder what's in here, though." He opened the desk in front of us.

"Ah, different and metal, Doctor, you were right." Dad commented, picking up two silver cylinders and passing one to me. It was smooth and shiny, and I could feel there was more to it than just appearance. The 'Doctor' had walked over to join Dad and me as I examined the cylinder.

"They are infostamps," Dad said. "I mean, at a guess. If I were you, Doctor, I'd say they worked something like this." He pressed one end of his cylinder and images were projected on to the mirror next to us. They were of buildings, lots and lots of buildings. Old ones, drawings, pictures of people. I walked closer to the mirror, wondering what the images were.

"What is it, Uncle?" I asked, mesmerised.

"Compressed information, Annie," He replied. "Tons of it. That is the history of London, 1066 to present day."

"Really?" I exclaimed. "It's beautiful!"

"This is like a disc, a Cyberdisc," Dad continued, indicating the infostamp. "But why would the Cybermen need something so simple? They've got to be wireless. Unless they're in the wrong century. They haven't got much power. They need plain old basic infostamps to update themselves. Are you alright?" I turned around to see the 'Doctor' slumped in a wooden chair, his face screwed up in pain.

"I'm fine." He said.

"No, you're not." I said.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Dad asked him, kneeling down in front of the man.

"I've seen one of these before," He explained. "I was holding this device the night I lost my mind. The night I regenerated. The Cybermen, they made me change. My mind, my face, my whole self. And you were there, sir. Who are you?"

"A friend. And Annie, too. I swear." Dad said, and it was sincere.

"Then I beg you, John, Annie. Help me." The fragile man asked with fear.

"Ah. Two words we never refuse," Dad replied with a small smile, and stood back up. "But it's not a conversation for a dead man's house. It'll make more sense if we go back to the TARDIS. Your TARDIS. Hold on. I just need to do a little final check. Won't take a tick. There's one more thing I cannot figure out. If this room's got infostamps, then maybe, just maybe, it's got something that needs infostamping…" Dad was rushing around, shoving both infostamps into the other Doctor's hands. He strode over to a door, me right behind him, and pulled it open. Behind it stood a man made of metal, a nightmare in silver. I knew immediately that this was a Cyberman.

"OK," Dad said, slamming the door shut again. "I think we should run." He grabbed my hand as the Cyberman smashed the door down, reaching out for us in murderous rage.

"Run, Doctor!" Dad yelled at the man, who was still sat on the chair. "Now!" Dad pulled me out of the room as the Cyberman cried "Delete!" at us, not dissimilar to the Daleks, I noted. We ran down the corridor, but the way was blocked by another Cyberman. This one forced us to turn around and run back, making us trapped at the bottom of the staircase.

"The Doctor will be deleted!"

"Stairs! Can't lead them outside!" Dad shouted as the 'Doctor' rushed half way up the steps. Dad grabbed something from a stand next to us with his free hand, which turned out to be an umbrella.

"You're not gonna do a lot with that, Dad!" I cried, reaching up for a sword that was pinned to the wall, still clinging devotedly to Dad's hand with my other. The Cybermen were still shouting their threats.

"No you don't!" Dad yelled, realising what I had worked out. He snatched the sword from my hand, and pushed me behind him protectively.

"I'm a dab hand with a cutlass. You don't want to come near me when I've got one of these!" He shouted at the expressionless figures in front of us. They were walking forwards, driving us backwards up the steps. "This is your last warning. No? OK, this is really your last warning! OK, I give up!" Dad turned around momentarily, pushing me further backwards into the other man. I tried to move around him repeatedly, determined that I could do more damage with the sword than Dad. Every time he stretched his arm out wider, pushing me backwards.

"Dad!" I yelled, exasperated.

"Listen to me properly. Whatever you're doing stuck in 1851, I can help! I mean it. I'm the only person in the world who can help you! Listen to me!" He shouted, ignoring me. The Cybermen continued repeating their "deletes", and Dad was throwing the sword around haphazardly at them as he spoke. All the while the Cybermen were moving forwards, and us back.

"I'm the Doctor! You need me!" Dad persisted. "Check your memory banks. My name's the Doctor. Leave this man alone. The Doctor is me!" As Dad yelled this at the top of his voice, he leapt forwards, kicking his leg out, and rammed the first Cyberman backwards down the stairs. I laughed; I never though Dad could pull out such a move as that, even against an enemy.

"Nice move, Dad!" I said loudly, grinning at him. It wasn't over, though. The Cybermen weren't pushed too far down, and continued moving upwards.

"The Doctor, remember? I'm the Doctor! You need me alive. You need the Doctor, and that's me!" The Cyberman was holding on to the sword, so Dad was forced to grip it horizontally across them both. The metal man pushed, and Dad was thrown on to the floor.

"Dad!" I yelled, anger overcoming my soldier determination. I leapt in front of Dad, who was sprawled helplessly on the floor as the Cyberman advanced.

"Jenny, no!" Dad shouted at me.

"Cybermen!" I screamed, picking up the sword from the floor. "There is one thing, just one, that you never do!" I lifted the sword into the air, and brought it down on to the metal arm hard.

"Jenny!"

"Guess what that is?" I continued, me ignoring Dad this time. I swung the sword around in front of the creatures, and hit it on its arm again, holding metal against metal. "Hurt my Dad." I said, anger making my voice drop. Before I could do anything, though, Dad had got to his feet and pulled me back, just as a bright blue-white light burst past my head and hit the Cybermen in the faces. They screamed, robotic screams, and fell to their knees. In seconds, their entire heads blew up, leaving nothing but two empty metal shells. I turned around, still leaning against Dad where he had dragged me back, to find the source of the power. The other Doctor was stood in the corner, looking down at an infostamp in his hand. One end was open.

"Infostamp!" I said with a relieved laugh.

"Infostamp with a Cyclo-Steinham core!" Dad repeated, joining in with my laugh. He looked down at me, grinning, and pulled me into a big hug. I could feel his relief as he sighed, and let me go. "Don't you do that to me again!" He whispered, but retaining the smile on his face. I grinned back, saying nothing. We turned to the man in the corner.

"You ripped open the core and broke the safety. Zap! Only the Doctor would think of that." Dad said to him.

"I did that last time." He said, looking up. He had a layer of nervous sweat on his forehead.

"Come here," Dad said quietly, his smile fading. He pulled out the stethoscope Donna used to see if I had two hearts. "You'll be OK. Let me just check."

"You told them you were the Doctor," the man said. "Why did you do that?"

"Oh, I was just… protecting you." Dad replied, putting the stethoscope end on to the man's chest.

"You're trying to take away the only thing I've got, like they did. They stole something, something so precious, but I can't remember," the man said, his voice shaking. "What happened to me? What did they do?"

"We'll find out," Dad said simply. "You and me and Jenny, together."

"Jenny?" The man questioned, looking over Dad's shoulder at me.

"Yeah, my name's Jenny," I told him. "Not Annie."

"And she's my daughter," Dad added. "You may as well know."

"You lied to me," the man said. I felt a stab of guilt in my hearts. "Why should I trust either of you if you don't give your real names?" Both Dad and me paused. Dad looked down at his feet, removing the stethoscope from his ears.

"Because we're telling you the truth now," He said. "And you know we are."

We left the house, and were walking back to find Rosita. The almost broken man who called himself the Doctor was walking ahead of Dad and me.

"Is it OK that he knows who I am now?" I whispered to Dad.

"He didn't have a reaction," he answered. "I don't think it would cause one."

"Why not?" I asked, curious. Dad paused before replying.

"I don't think he is the Doctor, Jen." He said. We walked silently for a couple more minutes, when we reached Rosita halfway down an alley.

"Doctor!" She cried when the man ahead reached her, and threw her arms around him. "I thought you were dead!"

"Now then, Rosita, a little decorum." The man said, slightly embarrassed as he turned to look at us.

"You've been gone for so long," She continued, directing the second bit at us. "He's always doing this, leaving me behind. Going frantic!" I smiled.

"What about the TARDIS?" The man asked her, changing the subject.

"Oh, she's ready. Come on!" Rosita grinned, turning and leading us further down the alleyway. Dad and me looked at each other, excitement clear on both our faces.

"I'm looking forward to this!" Dad said to me, holding my hand again and following the two.

We reached a small wooden building, which had several stalls on the inside and the floor was the same stone as outside. There was stuff everywhere, piles of documents, and more interestingly, luggage.

"So, you live here?" Dad asked as we entered.

"A temporary base, until we rout the enemy. The TARDIS is magnificent, but it's hardly a home." The man replied, much more together now than he was earlier.

"Where is the TARDIS?" I asked. I couldn't wait to see it.

"In the yard."

"What's all this luggage?" Dad asked, running his hand over a brown suitcase.

"Evidence. The property of Jackson Lake, the first man to be murdered." The man replied, slightly absent-mindedly. "Oh, but my new friends are fighters, Rosita, much like myself. Mr Smith faced the Cybermen with a cutlass, and Jenny protected her father when he was in trouble. I'm not ashamed to say, they were braver than I. They were quite brilliant." He said, smiling across at Dad and me.

"Thank you, Doctor." I called, grinning back.

"Her father?" Rosita piped up. "You said she was his niece, Doctor."

"Ah, yeah, about that," I replied awkwardly. "That wasn't entirely true."

"So Mr Smith's your father?" She asked again.

"Yep."

"Well, can't say I'm surprised." she said. I looked over at Dad, raising my eyebrows, a grin playing on my lips. He glanced at me, and ignored Rosita's comment. Instead he turned back to the luggage and scanned it with his screwdriver.

"Are you whistling again?" The man snapped from across the room.

"Yes," Dad replied, putting his hands behind his back, and doing a good job of acting ashamed. "Yes, I am, yeah."

"Terrible for whistling, he is, Doctor." I called across the stable, grinning at Dad with mischief as he slowly put the screwdriver back in his pocket, mouthing shush to Rosita. He took a suitcase from the pile and placed it in front of him.

"That's another man's property." Rosita stated as she walked over to Dad, me following her.

"Well, a dead man's." Dad replied casually, opening the case. I noticed the gold lettering next to the handle: J.L.

"So, how did you and the Doctor meet?" I asked Rosita.

"He saved my life," she replied. I looked at Dad, my eyes widening slightly. "Late one night, by the Osterman's Wharf, this creature came out of the shadows. A man made of metal. I thought I was going to die. And then, there he was. The Doctor." She paused. "Can you help him, sir? He has such terrible dreams. Wakes at night in such a state of terror."

"Come now, Rosita. With all the things a Time Lord has seen, everything he's lost, he may surely have bad dreams." The other Doctor said as he strolled over to us.

"Yeah," Dad agreed. I looked at him. He hadn't told me about nightmares. "Oh now, look. Jackson Lake had an infostamp." He said, taking another silver cylinder out of the suitcase and holding it up.

"But how?" The man asked quickly. "Is that significant?"

"Doctor, the answer to all this is in your TARDIS," Dad said, turning around from the suitcase and looking at the man. "Can we see it?"

"Mr Smith, Miss Smith. It would be my honour." The man said with a smile.

"There she is! My transport through time and space," He said. "The TARDIS." We were in a yard, hay scattered across the floor amongst the white snow. It was getting dark now, and in turn, colder. I crossed my arms, hugging myself, as I looked up at the sight in front of us.

"You've got a balloon." Dad stated. There was a brown basket sat on the ground, big enough to fit two people comfortably. Above the basket was a huge blue ball, reaching into the sky. I could tell it was full of gas.

"The TARDIS." I said, slightly taken aback by the thing in front of me.

"Yes, Miss Smith. T-A-R-D-I-S," The other Doctor said proudly. "It stands for Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style. Do you see?"

"Well, we do now, don't we, Jen?" Dad replied. "I like it. Good TARDIS. Brilliant. Nice one."

"Yeah, it's… nice." I repeated. "And is it inflated by gas, yeah?"

"We're adjacent to the Mutton Street Gasworks. I pay them a modest fee. Good work, Jed." The man said, smiling. He patted a younger man on the shoulder as he said this, and gave him a note. I assumed this was Jed.

"Glad to be of service, sir." Jed said.

"You've got quite a bit of money." Dad commented to the other Doctor.

"Oh, you get nothing for nothing," The man replied, waving it off. "How's that ripped panel, Jed?"

"All repaired. Should work a treat. You never know, maybe tonight's the night, Doctor," Jed replied. "Imagine it, seeing Christmas from above."

"Not just yet, I think. One day, I will ascend. One day soon." The man replied wistfully, looking up into the sky.

"You've never actually been up?" I asked him.

"He dreams of leaving, but never does." Rosita answered for him.

"I can depart in the TARDIS once London is safe," The other Doctor said. "And finally, when I'm up there. Think of it, John, Jenny. The time and the space."

"The perfect escape," Dad said. "Do you ever wonder what you're escaping from?"

"With every moment." He replied.

"Then do you want me to tell you?" Dad said. "Because I think I've worked it out now. How you became The Doctor. What do you think? Do you want to know?"

We were back in the stable. The man and Rosita were leaning against a desk, and Dad sat opposite them cross-legged. I plonked myself down next to him, wrapping my arms around my legs. Although it was warmer than outside, I still felt a chill. Dad had forcefully offered his trench coat, which I accepted gratefully, and he wrapped the brown material around my shoulders.

"The story begins with the Cybermen. A long time away, and not so far from here, the Cybermen were fought, and they were beaten," Dad told the man in front of us. "And they were sent into a howling wilderness called The Void, locked inside forever more. But then a greater battle rose up, so great that everything inside the Void perished. But, as the walls of the world weakened, the last of the Cybermen must have fallen through the dimensions, back in time, to land here. And they found you."

"I fought them, I know that," the man replied quietly. "But what happened?"

"At the same time, another man came to London. Mr Jackson Lake," Dad continued. I listened with rapt attention. "Plenty of luggage, money in his pocket. Maybe coming to town for the winter season, I don't know. But he found the Cybermen too. And just like you, exactly like you, he took hold of an infostamp."

"But he's dead, Jackson Lake is dead," the man said. "The Cybermen murdered him."

"You said no body was ever found," Dad said. "And you kept all his suitcases, but you could never bring yourself to open them. I told you the answer was in the fob watch. Can I see?" He reached out for the silver watch, and I leaned over his arm to see it closer. It had two letters engraved on the metal.

"J-L…" I said, realisation dawning on me.

"The watch is Jackson Lake's." Dad added. The man frowned at the watch, staring with uncertainty. I felt sorry for him.

"Jackson Lake is you, sir!" Rosita exclaimed, looking at the man.

"But I'm the Doctor," the man argued weakly.

"You became the Doctor because the infostamp you picked up was a book about one particular man." Dad replied, pointing the infostamp he was holding at a sheet of canvas hanging on the opposite wall. He pressed one end, and images were projected on to it; photos of men. Different faces, but I knew they were all one man. All the Doctor. All my Dad. There was an old man, balding but with some white hair. A slightly younger face, but still older than Dad, with dark hair. A man with curly grey hair. One with even curlier hair, brown, and a face younger than the first three. A young man, blonde, wearing a cream jacket. Another with light curly hair. One in a hat. A younger face with long dark hair. A man with very short hair, in a black leather jacket. And Dad.

"That's you." The man said, his eyes widening.

"Time Lord, TARDIS, enemy of the Cybermen. The one and the only," Dad said. He stopped the infostamp images, and the room went darker. "You see, the infostamp must have backfired. Streamed all that information about me right inside your head."

"I am nothing but a lie," Jackson Lake muttered, head in his hands.

"No, no, no, no, no," Dad argued, leaning forwards. "Infostamps are just facts and figures. All that bravery. Saving Rosita, defending London town, hmm? And the invention. Building a Tardis. That's all you."

"And what else?" The man said, looking up. Anger was threatening in his voice. "Tell me what else."

"There's still something missing, isn't there?" I said.

"I demand you tell me, sir," Jackson Lake said loudly, almost shouting. "Tell me what they took."

"Sorry. Really, I am so sorry, but that's an awful lot of luggage for one man," Dad said quietly and calmly. "Because an infostamp is plain technology. It's not enough to make a man lose his mind. What you suffered is called fugue. A fugue state, where the mind just runs away because it can't bear to look back. You wanted to become someone else, because Jackson Lake had lost so much." Nobody said anything. Suddenly a bell sounded from somewhere in the distance.

"Midnight," Rosita said. "Christmas day."

"I remember," Jackson Lake said suddenly, staring at nothing. "Oh my god." I glanced at Dad, who was staring sympathetically at the human man. "Caroline. They killed my wife," Jackson said, his voice breaking into a cry. "They killed her!"

Suddenly, the infostamp in Dad's hand beeped and a light appeared on the end. Dad leapt to his feet and opened a trunk next to us, picking up a strip of fabric with infostamps tied in a row on it.

"Oh, you found a whole cache of infostamps." Dad said.

"But what is it? What's that noise?" Rosita asked, standing up straight quickly.

"Activation?" I said, looking at Dad in question.

"Yes, Jen," He replied darkly. "A call to arms, the Cybermen are moving!" And with that, he ran outside, dropping the infostamps. I was right behind him.

We ran quickly around the corner as we saw marching shadows on the wall outside of Jackson's building. It wasn't Cybermen, though, like I thought it would be. There were hundreds of children, wrapped in grey coats and hats, walking fearfully down the dark snowy street. Rosita appeared behind us.

"What is it? What's happening?" She asked frantically. Neither of us replied.

"That's Mr Cole," Rosita said, pointing at a man amongst the small humans. "He's master of the Hazel Street workhouse. Maybe he's taking them to prayers."

"Oh, nothing as holy as that." Dad replied, striding over to catch up with the man.

"Can you hear me? Hello? No?" He said loudly to him. The man had small silver objects in both his ears, and Dad was focusing on these. "Mr Cole, you seem to have something in your ear. Now, this might hurt a bit, but if I can just-" He tried to remove the devices, but a growl from the edge of the street stopped him. I turned around to see one of the wild animal-like Cybershades keeping watch.

"They're on guard, Dad." I said.

"Yeah, can't risk a fight," He agreed. "Not with the children."

"But where are they going?" Rosita asked.

"They all need a good whipping if you ask me," a voice said. A turned to it, and stood behind us was Jed. "There's tons of them. I've just seen another lot coming down from the Ingleby Workhouse down Broadback Lane."

"Where's that?" Dad asked quickly.

"This way!" Rosita said, running away down the street. Dad grabbed my hand, and we followed the girl through the snow.

We stopped in a small lane a little way down. There were children still being marched past, and I could see them coming for a while yet.

"Dad, there's loads of them." I breathed.

"There's dozens." Rosita added.

"But what for?" Dad questioned aloud. We carried on walking quickly down the street, reaching a large brick building.

"That's the door to the sluice," Rosita told us. "All the sewage runs through there, straight into the Thames."

"Yeah, that's too well guarded," Dad said. "We'll have to find another way in." I turned around, and ran down the alley next to us as Dad spoke, ahead of him and Rosita. Two Cybermen happened to be on guard there, and I sprinted straight into them.

"No!" I yelled. One of them grabbed my arm with their cold metal hands, and instead of deleting me, held me in a tight grip. "That's cheating! Do you have your legs on silent?"

A woman with dark hair and equally dark eyes appeared from the shadows, dressed in an elaborate crimson dress.

"So, what do we have here?" She said, looking at me, and turning to see Dad stood across the alley, fear enveloping his eyes as he saw me.

"Jenny!" He shouted angrily. "Let her go!"

"Oh, I don't think my knights in shining armour will be doing that." The woman said mockingly.

"Even if they've converted you, that's not a Cyber speech pattern. You've still got free will," Dad said to her. "Step away, or they'll take you too."

"Who are you?" Rosita yelled at her.

"You can be quiet. I doubt he paid you to talk. More importantly, who are you, sir, with such intimate knowledge of my companions."

"I'm the Doctor." He replied, his eyes constantly on mine.

"Incorrect. You do not correspond to our image of the Doctor." The Cyberman holding me spoke.

"Yeah, but that's because your database got corrupted," Dad replied, his voice confident, but I could hear the edge of fear in it. "Oh, look, look, look. Check this. The Doctor's infostamp." He threw a cylinder across to the second metal man, who caught it easily.

"Plug it in, go on, download." Dad said to it.

"The core has been damaged. This infostamp would damage Cyberunits."

"Oh well, nice try, Dad." I said, trying to comfort him by acting relaxed. In my head, I was fiercely calculating how I could get out of the Cyberman's grip without being killed.

"Core repaired. Download." The Cyberman said, plugging the infostamp into a circle in its chest. "You are the Doctor." It stated after a couple of seconds, directing at Dad.

"Hello." He replied with a small wave.

"You and your companion will be deleted."

"No, let Jenny go, just kill me!" Dad shouted anxiously. "But let me die happy. Tell me, what do you need those children for?"

"What are children ever needed for?" The woman said. "They're a workforce."

"For what?" I asked, struggling against the increasing grip on my arms.

"Very soon now, the whole Empire will see. And they will bow down in worship."

"And it's all been timed for Christmas Day. Was that your idea, Miss?" Dad asked the woman.

"Hartigan. Yes. The perfect day for a birth, with a new message for the people. Only this time, it won't be the words of a man." She replied.

"The birth of what?" Dad yelled. I could tell he was getting frustrated.

"A birth, and a death. Namely, yours," Miss Hartigan said. "Thank you, Doctor. I'm glad to have been part of your very last conversation. Now, delete them, and take his daughter with us." The Cyberman threw me forwards to the ground, and stomped around me. They both marched forwards, arms outstretched, about to delete my Dad. I tried to scramble away, but Miss Hartigan pressed her heeled shoe on to my hand. I let out a yelp of pain.

"Jenny!" I heard Dad yell back. Suddenly, the two metal men in front of me collapsed to the floor, their heads bursting with blue light. Behind them, I just made out the tall figure of Jackson Lake, armed with a strap full of infostamps.

"At your service, Doctor." I heard him call to Dad.

"Shades!" Miss Hartigan shouted repeatedly. Several of the hairy beasts appeared quickly, one of them hurtling towards me and throwing me on its back. It ran away from the scene, taking me with it.

"DAD!" I screamed as it tore around the corner, out of sight.

I was pushed into the arms of another Cyberman, which clasped my arms behind my back again. In front of me was Miss Hartigan, who was stood next to a Cyberman which looked grander than the rest. In front of them was a bridge, leading to another room opposite. I could just see a large metal throne in the centre of it, two metal men either side.

"Oh, that is magnificent. That is royalty, indeed. And that's quite a throne. Oh, you will look resplendent." Miss Hartigan said to the Cyberman next to her.

"The chair you designate as throne is not intended for me. My function is to serve the CyberKing, not to become the CyberKing." It replied robotically.

"Who's gonna sit there, then?" I called over to it. It paused, and turned to look at Miss Hartigan.

"No!" She said, suddenly scared. "I think if you remember correctly you said I was to be heralded."

"All hail the CyberKing!" It said, ignoring her plea, and I heard all the Cybermen around repeating the phrase.

"But you promised me," Miss Hartigan exclaimed. "You said I would never be converted!"

"That was designated a lie." The leading Cyberman stated, and I couldn't help but let out a little laugh.

"Go on then, Miss Hartigan!" I grinned at her. "Don't keep your loyal subjects waiting."

A few minutes later, we had been marched across the bridge and Miss Hartigan was forced into the throne-like metal chair. The Cybermen strapped her wrists down tightly, and I was held in a vice-like grip next to the throne.

"You can't do this to me!" Miss Hartigan cried.

"Incorrect. It is done." The Cyberleader replied.

"But I would have served you anyway!" She wailed. I rolled my eyes.

"If anything, miss, that's worse." I said to her.

"Your mind is riven with anger and abuse and revenge. These have no place in a Cybermind. Activate," The Cyberleader said. "Emotions have tormented you all of your life. Now you will be set free. This is your liberation."

"Oh, for the love of god, have you no pity?" Miss Hartigan whimpered.

"Correct." A brass helmet was lowered from the ceiling and placed on the woman's head. I caught a glimpse of terror on her face as the metal touched her hair, but in a matter of seconds, she was converted and her eyes became entirely black.

"A CyberKing is born." The Cyberleader said, beginning many robotic cries of "All hail the CyberKing!"

"I can see the stars," Miss Hartigan began. "the worlds beyond, the vortex of time itself, and the whole of infinity. Oh, but this is glorious!" I couldn't help but think her words sounded like the head of a Time Lord. I could feel things, everything at once, the turn of the world. It wasn't as pronounced as in Dad's mind, I would have imagined, but it still echoed in my brain.

"Alert! You are operating beyond the standard parameters." I heard the Cyberleader say, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"I am new. The might of your technology combined with my own imagination. Yes! There will be a new race of Cybermen. My Cybermen. Logic and strength combined with fury and passion." Miss Hartigan said with enthusiasm.

"Diagnosis, system failure. You will be removed from the processor." The Cyberleader stated. It stepped forwards towards the throne, but a bright beam of light shot from Miss Hartigan's helmet and hit the metal, making the Cyberleader explode.

"Whoah!" I yelled in shock.

"I am CyberKing. My mind inside the Cybermen. And you will obey me!" Miss Hartigan shouted angrily. There were more cries of "All hail the CyberKing!" around the room.

"Come my soldiers," She continued. "Come to me." Several metal man advanced forwards, towards the throne and towards me.

"CyberKing rising!" Miss Hartigan ordered. The bridge at the entrance of the room broke away as I felt the entire place rise into the air.

"What's happening?" I screamed. "Why is the room rising?" No Cyberman replied to me, and neither Miss Hartigan, who was sat proudly in the throne, staring straight ahead. There bridge left a huge open window stretching across the width of the room, and through it I watched the ground lower, and buildings coming into view. They disappeared underneath the window too, and the room kept rising until I was staring straight across into the dark sky. Below, the city of London was sitting peacefully.

"Miss Hartigan!" I yelled. She turned her head slowly to look at me. "The CyberKing is this, isn't it? We are inside the CyberKing!" She remained silent as the room stopped moving.

"Behold, I am risen," She announced to the city, turning her head back forwards. "Witness me, mankind, as CyberKing of all." The room started moving again, this time forwards as the metal giant stepped over the city.

"And I will walk," Miss Hartigan continued. "I will stride across this tiny little world." I saw buildings and people below, being crushed. The humans ran like insects away from the CyberKing's metal feet.

"Stop moving!" I screamed.

"My people," Miss Hartigan said, confusion sounding in her voice. "Why do they not rejoice?"

"They didn't ask for this!" I shouted back at her. "You've forced this disgusting thing upon them, and why would they want it? You're destroying their city!"

"People of the world, now hear me," she said loudly, ignoring me again. "Your governments will surrender. And if not, then behold my power." I felt the giant metal man lift an arm, and white shots fired past the window and hit random spots of the city, catching buildings alight.

"You don't get it!" I continued. "They're not taking instructions! You are destroying their homes!"

"Attention, proximity alert." A Cyberman said.

"How is that even possible?" Miss Hartigan answered. "Oh, this I would see. Turn!" The whole room spun around, until it stopped opposite a huge blue balloon, floating in the air with a basket dangling underneath. In the basket, there was the most brilliant man.

"Dad!" I yelled happily.

"Excellent. The Doctor," Miss Hartigan addressed him. "Yet another man come to assert himself against me in the night."

"Miss Hartigan? I'm offering you a choice. You might have the most remarkable mind this world has ever seen. Strong enough to control the Cybermen themselves." Dad called back from the balloon.

"I don't need you to sanction me." Miss Hartigan replied.

"No, but such a mind deserves to live," Dad started. "The Cybermen came to this world using a Dimension vault. I can use that device to find you a home, with no people to convert, but a new world where you can live out your mechanical life in peace."

"I have the world below, and it is abundant with so many minds ready to become extensions of me. Why would I leave this place?" She said.

"Because if you don't, I'll have to stop you." Dad shouted back heroically.

"What do you make of me, sir? An idiot?" She yelled, suddenly raising her voice.

"No," Dad replied. "The question is, what do you make of me?"

"Destroy him!" Miss Hartigan barked at the Cybermen.

"You make me into this." Dad said. He opened numerous infostamps at once, firing them at Miss Hartigan bravely. I looked away as the bright light hit her, but it was over in a couple of seconds.

"Then I have made you a failure. Your weapons are useless, sir." She said arrogantly.

"I wasn't trying to kill you," Dad replied as my hearts swelled with pride, realising what he had done. "All I did was break the Cyber-connection, leaving your mind open. Open, I think, for the first time in far too many years. So you can see. Just look at yourself. Look at what you've done." I looked at the woman in the throne. Her eyes had returned to normal, her human eyes. They were wide in fright.

"I'm sorry, Miss Hartigan," Dad called. "But look what you've become." She looked down at the metal strapping her to the chair and let out a terrible scream.

"I'm so sorry." I heard Dad mutter loudly. Miss Hartigan carried on screaming, louder and louder, and looking around at the Cybermen in the room. They started sparking electricity, and I felt the metal holding on to me get hotter. The grip on my arms loosened as the Cybermen gained more electrical energy, and I slipped out and away from it just as it exploded.

"Jenny!" I heard Dad shout from behind me. I span around to face him. I was stood very close to the front of the room, clinging to the side as the CyberKing started swaying.

"Dad!" I yelled back.

"Jenny, jump!" He shouted at me.

"What?" I exclaimed.

"Jump!" He repeated. "Jump on to the basket!"

"Are you mad?" I shrieked. "I'll never make it that far!"

"What happened to the girl who flipped through those killer lasers?" He shouted. I paused. I could jump from here to there, surely. Just time it right, when the CyberKing tipped forwards. Dad wouldn't let me fall.

"OK!" I shouted, taking a few steps back. I felt the CyberKing flail back, and got ready to run. It swung forwards, and I followed the tipping. I leapt out of the CyberKing's head, reaching out for Dad who had his arms stretched forwards to catch me. It only took a few seconds, but it felt much longer in the air. I strained to get to the basket, I could feel my body lowering a few feet away from Dad's hands. I screamed, and pushed forwards, willing myself to get there. My hands hit a sandbag hanging from the side of the basket, and I gripped it, looking up at Dad leaning over to me.

"Grab my hand!" He shouted. I reached up, using all the strength in my body, and felt my fingers entwine with Dad's. He pulled me up, and my stomach was leant over the side of the basket. He wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me over the side, setting me down on my feet. We grinned at each other with relief, just as something beeped in Dad's pocket.

"Oh, now you're ready!" He said, pulling out another device. He pointed it out of the basket at the Cyber King, which was almost falling over, about to crush the city below. Swirls of energy burst from the device, purple and blue colours. It grew bigger and bigger, until the metal giant slipped into it and disappeared, the energy vanishing with it. Down below I heard clapping and cheering from the people of London town. They were cheering Dad. I looked up at him and laughed, leaping up and hugging him in relief that it was over. He laughed back, and waved down to the humans. Setting me down, he reached up to a bell above our heads, ringing it out on Christmas morning, 1851.

"The city will recover, as London always does. Though the events of today will be history, spoken of for centuries to come." Jackson Lake said later in the market place.

"Yeah, funny that." Dad replied.

"And a new history begins for me," Jackson continued. "I find myself a widower, but with my son and with a good friend."

"Don't let her go, that one." I smiled.

"She's marvellous." Dad added.

"Frederick will need a nursemaid and I can think of none better," Jackson said. I looked at Dad, mouthing "Frederick?"

"I'll tell you later." He muttered.

"But you're welcome to join us. We thought we might all dine together at the Traveller's Halt. A Christmas feast in celebration, and in memory of those we have lost." Jackson said. He paused. "You won't stay?"

"Like I said, you know me." Dad replied. I looked at him, confused.

"I don't think anyone does," Jackson said. "Except for your daughter, possibly."

"I'm not even sure about that." I replied, laughing. We were walking, and came to the TARDIS at this point. The real TARDIS.

"Oh! And this is it. Oh! Oh, if I might, Doctor. One last adventure?" Jackson exclaimed, looking at the blue box in awe.

"Oh, be my guest!" Dad replied happily, opening the door for him. The three of us strolled inside.

"Oh. Oh my word. Oh. Oh, goodness me. Well. But this is, but this is nonsense!" Jackson mumbled excitedly as he wandered around the console.

"Well, that's one word for it, eh Jen?" Dad said, winking at me.

"Complete and utter, wonderful nonsense. How very, very silly. Oh, no. I can't bear it. Oh, it's causing my head to ache. No. No, no, no, no, no, no!" Jackson exclaimed, rushing back outside. I grinned knowingly at Dad, and we followed the man out.

"Oh! Oh, gracious. That's quite enough," Jackson said. "I take it this is goodbye."

"Onwards and upwards." Dad agreed.

"Oh, come on, Dad," I exclaimed. Both men looked at me. "We've been invited to dinner! And not only that, it's Christmas."

"Yes, Doctor. It is no longer a request, it's a demand." Jackson added.

"Oh, go on then." Dad said.

"Really?" Jackson exclaimed, surprised.

"Just this once. You've actually gone and changed my mind. Not many people can do that," Dad said, grinning at the both of us. "Jackson, if anyone had to be the Doctor, I'm glad it was you."

"Me too." I agreed.

"The feast awaits. Come with me. Walk this way!" Jackson said, leading us back out of the shadowed archway.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: 10,500 words for you :) It's a lengthy chapter, but the one I'm most proud of so far. Heading into the cross-over territory next chapter, so get ready for a bit of Captain Jack ;) Review! xx**


	6. Day One

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: I'm on a roll today! Procrastination from revision... First Torchwood chapter :) Review! xx**

"So, the Time Lords didn't all travel around in time machines?"

"No, no… I, er, I… borrowed the TARDIS." Dad replied to me. We were in the TARDIS control room, and Dad was telling me about his race. My race too, technically.

"And by borrowed, you mean stole?" I asked with a grin. He looked down at his shoes, hands in pockets, a sign I was beginning to recognise as embarrassment.

"Well… yes," He replied reluctantly. "But don't think that means I'm condoning it!"

"I'm not a thief, Dad," I laughed. "Just a soldier."

"Yes, you are. And speaking of, how are you getting on without a gun in your pocket?" He asked.

"Well, it's OK. I'm getting used to it, although all my natural instincts have been telling me to pick up a weapon," I replied honestly. Dad and me had had these open conversations several times now, and I rather enjoyed them. It felt like we were a part of something, like a proper team. The two of us, father and daughter, and we could tell each other anything. Dad had even explained to me his relationship with Rose Tyler a couple of days ago as we were walking through the slums of New New York.

_"I took Rose here once, you know," He said. "But to the hospital, not down here. Although, I have been here before – in the real city – with Martha. But she was kidnapped, so go careful, Jenny…" _

He told me that Rose was his best friend since his ninth body, and that when they met he was violent and vengeful, and reckless. Rose made Dad better, and she was partly the reason for his calmer demeanour now.

_"I wish I'd told her," He muttered quietly._

_"Told her what?" I asked._

_"Oh, she knew." He sighed, his eyes staring back into the past._

"Anyway, Dad," I said, back in the TARDIS. "Where are we off to next?"

"Well, I was thinking Barcelona," He said enthusiastically. "The planet… do you know, Jenny, they've got dogs with no noses!"

"Brilliant!" I replied with just as much excitement.

"Good! You might want a jumper, though, it can get cold on Barcelona, even for a Time Lady," He said with a wink. "Wardrobe's first left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left."

"Yes, I know, Dad," I groaned, walking out of the control room and down the corridor. "I remember."

"I'm just going to land the TARDIS on Earth for a bit, I'm getting some weird readings transmitting a frequency of 456…" I heard him call to me, but his voice got quieter as I reached the wardrobe. It was massive on the inside (it was the TARDIS after all), and I headed straight up the winding steps to the higher level. The TARDIS had given me my own separate section, with a huge variety of outfits from all different eras and places, and this was one floor up. I'd found it the other day when Dad let me go exploring, and decided to change my soldier clothes that I'd been wearing since Messaline. I was now dressed in tight black trousers and a purple T-shirt, which was a similar style to my old green one. My favourite, however, was the pair of Converse which I spotted immediately underneath a pile of socks. They were pale pink, and already slightly scuffed from the awful lot of running I'd done in them. Dad and me truly matched when I wore those shoes. Now, I had to add some sort of jumper to my outfit, like Dad said. I rummaged through the hangers, discarding a denim jacket with coloured patches all over and an entirely glittery gold suit jacket amongst other things. Finally, I picked up a black leather coat which stopped at the waist: tight, streamlined, and stylish. The perfect thing to run in! I smiled to myself, and put the jacket on quickly. I paused in front of a full length mirror as I ran past it, checking my appearance. It fit perfectly; the TARDIS knew what she was doing. I smiled at my reflection, and continued running down the tree-like steps, and all the way back to the console room.

"Dad?" I called out. The place was empty. I walked around the control panel once, and stopped when I reached the monitor. The TARDIS was still scanning some frequency, the one that Dad said he was checking out. He also said he was landing the TARDIS on Earth… one little look outside wouldn't hurt, would it? After all, Earth was by far my favourite planet that I'd seen. And Dad said that it changes a lot over time, and even just across different lands; apparently there were cities, mountains, deserts, forests, and polar regions all at once! I ran over to the doors and slammed them open in excitement.

The TARDIS was parked between two brick walls, so I slid around the blue panels to reach the open space next to it. It looked like a city: the floor was tiled and there were high buildings dotted about, but not many people around. I walked around the corner, amazed with the scene in front of me, and saw a huge gold building. It was rounded and tall, with some sort of lettering indented into the shining panels. The sky was a light shade of grey, and I could smell salt water somewhere nearby. I continued walking slowly forwards, into the middle of the square, transfixed. Suddenly, I heard the familiar wheezing sound of the TARDIS, and panicked.

"NO, WAIT!" I yelled, coming out of my trance and sprinting back to where the box once stood. Just as I reached it, the blue light faded into nothing, and all there was in front of me was the dank alley.

"Come back!" I shouted into thin air. "Dad! Don't leave me!" It was useless. Dad was gone, and I had no way of contacting him. I was stuck in this strange city, without a clue of where to get help.

"What do I do now?" I mumbled sadly, and deciding that it was no good standing around here, shuffled back to the square. I stuffed my hands in my pockets miserably, looking down at the floor as I walked. I wandered across the grey tiles for a few minutes, when suddenly a shiver ran through my spine. I could feel something nearby… something not right. Something out of its time. Something somehow outlasting its time. I looked up sharply, examining my surroundings, calculating where this thing was. I spotted two people, two men, sat on some stone steps a little away from me underneath the golden building. I strolled towards them suspiciously. As I reached a few metres away from them, I heard one of them say:

"I could find you lasers and weevils and hitchhikers. But kids…"

They were talking about aliens. They must be able to help me, or at least put me in the right direction. I continued striding towards them, and realisation dawned on me.

"Captain Harkness! Ianto!" I shouted, stretching my arms out with relief, and breaking into a run.

"Jenny?" The American called back, jumping to his feet. I finally reached them, and despite the repelling force between Jack and me, leapt up and threw my arms around his neck.

"Oh, thank you!" I sighed.

"What are you doing here? Where's the Doctor?" Jack asked, shocked.

"Gone," I muttered, releasing the unnatural man and setting myself back down on my feet. "He landed the TARDIS here to scan some frequency, and I stepped outside, just for a second. I only wanted to look! And when I turned back the TARDIS had disappeared."

"Right," the Captain said. "He won't have done it on purpose. Not to you." He smiled alluringly. "We'll find him, but in the meantime, come with me."

"Where?" I called as he sauntered off.

"Jenny, follow me," Jack said back. "See you later, Ianto!"

"Where are you going?" Ianto shouted anxiously.

"Now who's a couple?" Jack called back to him. I glanced at Ianto, who was looking at me with an embarrassed expression. I gave him a small smile and shrugged, turning back to the strange Captain and running to catch up with him.

An hour later, we were stood on a doorstep to a house on an ordinary Earth street. Jack hadn't answered any of the questions I'd asked about where we were going and what we were going to do to find Dad since we left the square, despite him asking me every detail about how I'd got here. I couldn't work out whether his mind was on something else. However, as he pressed the doorbell, he quickly turned to me and said: "We will find the Doctor, don't worry, Jenny. I promise." I was about to answer, when a woman opened the door. She was average height with short dark hair, and piercing blue eyes. She glanced at me, not taking a lot of notice, and stared at Jack. Not glaring or gazing, just looking at him. Jack gave her a wide smile.

"Oh, I thought so." The woman said, expressionless.

"Good to see you," Jack said to her. "How's things?"

"Terrifying." She replied, a hint of frustration in her voice. Suddenly, a little blonde boy came running down the hallway behind the woman.

"Uncle Jack!" The child shouted excitedly. Uncle?

"Steven!" Jack called back, lifting him into the air. "Hey soldier, how you doing?" Jack carried his nephew passed me and the woman into the house, without a look at either of us.

"I was talking like an alien! Everyone was, it was brilliant!" I heard the boy say as Jack walked through a doorway at the other end of the hall.

"You'd better come in," The woman said sarcastically, rolling her eyes, then turning back to me. "Not you, sorry. Come in." I gave her a warm smile, and introduced myself.

"I'm Jenny." I said. Whoops… should I have given a fake name? No, this was Jack's family. I'd be safe here. The woman smiled back at me and led the way through the same door Jack used. I walked into a kitchen, but it was different to the one in the TARDIS. This was light and clean, and homely. Not that the TARDIS wasn't those things, but I had a feeling Dad didn't make use of his kitchen much. There were glass doors opposite, and out of them I could see Jack playing with his nephew in the garden. He was laughing. I watched them outside for a few seconds, before the woman offered me a drink.

"Tea?" She asked me, filling a kettle by the sink.

"Uh… sure." I replied politely. I'd never had tea before, but Dad said once that he liked it. That was usually a good indication that I would, too. "So, you're the Captain's sister?" I asked. The woman was putting tea bags in mugs. She paused as I spoke, and glanced at me.

"No," she answered quietly. "No, he's not my brother."

"Oh," I said. "What's your name, Miss Harkness?"

"Alice," she replied. "And it's Carter, not Harkness. Sugar?"

"Yeah, eight please." I replied. She glanced at me briefly, confused, but turned back to the counter. Alice seemed definite on her surname, as if she didn't want to be associated with Jack. I wondered who she really was, but didn't pry. Dad and me told people we were uncle and niece, although they very rarely believed it, and so I knew when there was a reason to hide your identity.

"And you work with him, do you?" Alice asked me, nodding to Jack outside. I blinked, unsure of how to explain.

"Well, no. No, I'm not a colleague or anything," I started. "He's friends with my Dad."

"Oh, trust him." Alice muttered under her breath, pouring boiling water into the mugs. I frowned over at her.

"No, he's helping me find my Dad," I explained. "I lost him." I looked down at my fingers, wishing I had taken down the number of Martha's phone on the TARDIS. I could call and just tell him where I was, and he would come pick me up. Then off we would go, out into the stars, with no worries about finding each other. Alice brought over the mugs, putting one down in front of me.

"Thanks." I said, lifting it up to my lips and sipping. Tea wasn't too bad, I supposed. It was milky and hot, but not quite sweet enough. I made a mental note to ask for more sugars next time. Jack abruptly came through the glass doors behind me, and sat on the stool by my side. Alice turned away and busied herself with other things, kitchen things, when he walked inside. I took another sip of tea, looking at Jack. He was purposely ignoring my stare, I knew it. Even when he sat next to me I could feel the wrongness emitting from him.

"They said on the news that we should send them back to school tomorrow," Alice began, making another cup of tea, I assumed for Jack. "Do you think it's safe?"

"Why wouldn't it be safe for kids to go to school?" I asked, voicing my thoughts accidently aloud. Alice stared at me.

"I'll explain later, Jen," Jack replied. I flinched. Dad was the only one who called me that. "And I don't know any more than you." He said to Alice.

"Oh, come on." She glared, placing a mug down in front of Jack harder than she did with mine.

"I don't!" He replied innocently. "Any word from Joe?" I realised quickly that I wasn't going to understand much of this conversation, and decided to stay out of it.

"In Italy, with her," Alice replied sadly. "They finally got married. But he, um... he phones now and then, and sends Steven postcards. Remembers his birthday. There are worse fathers." Jack and Alice both paused, and I could sense an air of awkwardness.

"How are you off for money?" Jack asked her.

"Don't worry about that," Alice replied. "You give me enough. Can't be easy, writing cheques, huh?"

"Alice, you were the one who asked me to stay away," Jack said. "I'd come round here every week if you wanted me to. Every day." My mind was calculating what the relationship between Jack and Alice could be – siblings, cousins? Exes?

"Yeah." Alice mumbled quietly. "I just can't stand it, Dad." My eyes widened a fraction. Dad?

"I look older than you and it's never gonna stop. I get older and older and you stay the same," She continued. Jack couldn't help it, though, I thought. Dad explained him to me after we dropped Donna home, and I knew he was immortal and therefore aging incredibly slowly. "One day you're gonna be standing at my funeral, looking just like you did when you were standing at Mum's. No wonder she was so furious. You make us feel old." I decided not to tell Alice that I was born only a few weeks ago.

"Actually, I found a grey hair." Jack said, joking subtly. I smirked.

"Oh, well. That is the end of the world." Alice replied, letting out a repressed laugh. Jack joined in, finally looking at me, as if he was pleading for something. His eyes told a different story than his chuckle, though. There was worry in them.

"You ever gonna tell him?" He asked Alice, looking out of the window at Steven, who was still playing outside.

"What do I say?" Alice replied. "That you're his grandfather?"

"He's too young to notice right now… that I don't age," He said. "But one day he's gonna realise-"

"And that's another reason for you to stay away." Alice snapped. I felt sorry for Jack as he looked down at his tea.

"I suppose," he said. "I could make the most of it while he's still young, take him out, buy him stuff. Me and him, sorta thing."

"You mean today?" Alice said suspiciously, looking up at Jack with a glare.

"While I'm here, may as well." He replied. Alice paused.

"You bastard," She said to him. "Something happens to kids, and you want to spend time with him on the same day. You are not experimenting on that boy, Dad, not ever. That's why I want you to stay away, because you're dangerous." The air was awkward again, so I sipped up the rest of my tea.

"I'll go say goodbye to Steven, Jenny, then we'll leave." Jack said to me. Suddenly, I felt something in my head. Something nudging me. As it settled, I heard Jack's voice: "Jenny, talk to Alice for me. Tell her about the Doctor, and that you're his daughter. Please." He said silently. I looked up at him and nodded. He stood up and walked outside, over to his grandson.

"Alice, let me tell you something," I said quickly. "My Dad is like Jack. A bit, in ways."

"What ways?" She snapped.

"Well, he looks young, younger than he really is. Not as young as me, people can tell he's my Dad, but still young," I started. "It can be a blessing."

"How?" She said sharply.

"He can protect me," I said. "His body is young enough to run around, stop me from getting hurt. Believe me, if he looked his actual age, there's no way he would be doing the stuff he does. And Jack can do that for you, too."

"You don't know anything about us," She said. "My father is a dangerous man, I don't want him near my son."

"Look, I get it, and I get it if you don't want to listen to me-"

"No," Alice interrupted. "I don't." Jack walked back in at that moment, Steven in his arms.

"I'll see you soon, soldier." He said, placing the boy down on his feet. He stood up straight, glancing at me, then back at his daughter.

"And you, Alice," He said. "Come on, Jen." My body winced. He used "Jen" again. I got up and thanked Alice for the tea, and left behind Jack, who was already on the phone when we walked out of the front door.

"Rupesh! Captain Jack Harkness," He said. "You've got a children's ward, haven't you? I need a kid…" I followed Jack's strides down the street, reaching his blue sports car a few minutes later.

"So, what's with all the kid stuff?" I asked him as I hopped in the front seat.

"This morning, all the children stopped," He explained. "Across the entire planet, every single one just stopped, simultaneously." I nodded as he continued. "Then later, they stopped again. But this time they all spoke. "We are coming.""

"Right," I said. "So this is the sort of thing Torchwood investigates?"

"Exactly," He said, pulling the car away. "But you need to find your Dad. You go to the Hub, I'll be back later."

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"The hospital," he replied. "We need a child."

I walked through the sliding metal door into the Torchwood Hub. It was exactly as I remembered it: dark, busy, and futuristic.

"Hello?" I called out.

"Over here!" A voice called back. I walked around the computers to find Ianto stood at a monitor, something searching on the screen. "Hello, Jenny."

"Hi," I said. "Does Jack have a number for my Dad?"

"The Doctor?" He asked. "No, I don't think we have one on record." I sighed.

"OK. Need to do a scan for Time Lord, then, in that case." I replied, settling myself at another computer.

"Time Lord?" Ianto questioned.

"Yeah, it's what we are," I replied, focusing on the screen. "Our species."

"Oh, right." Ianto said, accepting the fact that I was an alien with no problems. We spent the next half an hour in silence, both working at the computers. The scan for Time Lords was taking forever, which I took as a bad sign. Did Jack still have Dad's hand in that jar? No, that grew into the second Doctor, the one living with Rose. The Torchwood software would have to do for now.

"Do scans always take this long?" I called over to Ianto.

"Sometimes." He called back, just as someone else came into the Hub. I turned my chair to see Gwen rush straight past me, without a second glance.

"Gwen Cooper!" I smiled. "Nice to see you again." She didn't respond.

"Result! There was a Holly Tree Lodge just outside Arbroath. It's a hotel now, but up until 1965 it was a state-run orphanage. And they had a Clement McDonald!" Ianto called to her, but she didn't answer him either. "He was taken into care, April 1965, after his mother died. No father on record. In November 1965, he was transferred, along with…"

"She's not listening, Ianto." I said, giggling at him. Gwen had ran down the steps into the medical area, and I could see her fiddling with a scanner.

"You OK, Gwen?" I called. She didn't respond. The door opened again, Jack bursting through and talking at full speed.

"We need damage control at St Helen's," he said. "One body. Rupesh Patanjali, shot in the back."

"What happened?" Ianto asked, standing up and walking over to Jack.

"I don't know, he was just left there right beside me," Jack replied. "Like someone's gloating."

"Did they kill you?" Ianto asked quietly.

"Yeah," Jack answered, looking down at his feet, his voice wavering just slightly. Ianto moved forwards immediately, hugging Jack. He looked over at me, realising that I was watching them, and let go awkwardly. I grinned.

"Maybe we're being targeted. Whether it was him or me, we should be careful," Jack said. "Better tell Gwen."

"She's over there, in the medical bit… is it a lab?" I told him. Jack rushed over there, calling back to me as he went.

"Found anything, Jen?" He asked. Jen again.

"No, still scanning for Time Lord." I called back.

"OK," He replied. "Gwen!" He walked down the steps towards her, and I couldn't hear him anymore. I turned back to the monitor. Still no traces of Time Lord around.

"Oh, Dad, come on," I sighed. "Where are you?"

"Ianto, Jenny, get over here!" I heard Jack shout from the other side of the room. "We're having a baby!" I leapt up immediately and followed Ianto to the medical bay. Gwen had her hand on a scanner, Jack stood next to her, and on the screen in front of me was a moving computerised image of a human body – Gwen's. And at the bottom of her belly, a red dot was flashing. I laughed happily and leaned over the railing.

"Wow, Gwen!" I exclaimed.

"Have you told Rhys?" Jack asked Gwen.

"I've only just found out myself." Gwen replied weakly.

"You told me before him, he's gonna love that." Jack chuckled smugly.

"Congratulations!" Ianto said, smiling over the rails. "Would now be a good time to tell you I lost the car?"

"You did what?" Jack snapped at him, looking up at us for the first time since he called us over.

"That is just bloody spectacular!" Gwen said to herself, eyes transfixed on the screen. "But what about this place, and my job?"

"We'll manage," Jack said, placing his hand on top of Gwen's. "We always do." Suddenly, the screen changed. It zoomed in on another body, on the hips, where another red dot was flashing. This time, though, 'ALERT' appeared over the image in red letters and an alarm was sounding loudly throughout the Hub.

"Oh my god!" Jack exclaimed.

"There's a bomb." Ianto said.

"There's a bomb inside your stomach." I repeated, and ran back to the monitors. My mind went into war mode, calculating fiercely and fast, the best way to get out alive, how long we can wait until we absolutely have to leave, how long it would take to get out…

"Get out!" I heard Jack yell behind me.

"No!" Gwen shouted back.

"All of you!"

"No!"

"Right now!"

"It has a blast radius of one mile!" Ianto called, surprisingly calm. I continued evaluating the situation quickly in my head, running around the room, picking up devices and objects that we might need.

"Right now, get out!" Jack screamed.

"Look, there must be something we can do! We can stop it!" Gwen hollered back. "We can fix this, OK, we can rip it out of you!"

"I'm telling you, get out!"

"It's active, two minutes!" I heard Ianto say, holding up a stopwatch.

"I can't just run, Jack!" Gwen yelled.

"You're pregnant!" Jack said simply. I ran past Gwen as she hurried out of the doors. Good. One down, one to get out.

"Ianto, you need to leave!" I shouted across the room.

"Ianto!" Jack yelled.

"There must be a way to override it!" He said to Jack, typing furiously on a computer.

"For god's sake, get out!"

"There'll be nothing left of you!" Ianto screamed at Jack.

"I can survive anything!" I saw Jack push Ianto on to a lift, and they kissed. A quick kiss, but still, a passionate one. Jack hit a button as they broke apart, and Ianto began to rise higher up the room and out of the Hub. I continued grabbing things, guns mainly. Oh, it felt good to hold a weapon without Dad telling me to put it down.

"Jenny!" Jack yelled, running over. "Get out!"

"No, you'll be torn apart!" I shouted back.

"Your Dad will kill me if you get hurt!" He said. True. "I'll come back, I always do!"

"Yeah? I'm Time Lord, so will I."

"Jenny, I'm telling you. Get out!" I looked into Jack's eyes. They were determined. It would take longer to find Dad if I got myself blown up, and he would be alone. I dropped some of the stuff, taking just two guns with me. I looked up at Jack's face one more time. He was wrong. He was human, yet immortal. My whole body reacted against him, but it felt like a magnet: one side, repelling him away from me as far as possible. The other side, attracted. We looked at each other for half a second. Suddenly, our faces hit, and our lips touched. It lasted for a second, and as soon as it was over, I ran out of the doors just as they were closing, not looking back at the human time bomb. Dad would not be happy. He told me not to go for the Captain, like his other companions all seemed to do: Rose, Martha, Donna… apparently they all fell for his charms at one time or another. I carried on sprinting down the winding corridor, meeting Gwen near the exit.

"Gwen! Go! Go! Go! Get out, now!" I screamed at her as I passed, grabbing her hand. We ran a few more steps, and I heard the bomb explode behind us. There was a roar, rolling rapidly through the halls we had just scurried down, and I felt it coming. I felt it behind us, licking the soles of my Converse. We got outside, dashing across the wooden panels of the dock. The fire was coming. I heard a BOOM, and Gwen and me were thrown forwards, into the rubble of the Hub. My head hit the ground, and everything went black.


	7. Day Two

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Hello! This chapter includes quite a lot more creativity which I'm proud of.. It's also emotional in parts.. and just to make it clear, Gwen knew how Jenny got to Torchwood because Ianto told her over the phone as she left Clem at the home (scene in chapter 6, not written but in the episode) :) a little swearing in this chapter too.. don't blame me, it's mainly Rhys's fault ;) Review!**

I was running, my legs whizzing faster and faster as I flew down a corridor in the TARDIS. The faster I ran, the more I felt like I was floating. I didn't know where I was going, but I had to find Dad in the maze of dark walls. My breathing was heavy and I kept feeling in my pocket for a gun, just to hold it. I would be safer then. I tore past dozens of rooms, glancing in them as I went. In one was a gold Dalek, its eyestalk pointed in my direction. Another held Miss Hartigan, sat on her silver throne, eyes black and the bronze helmet upon her head. I glimpsed some of Dad's friends as well: Mickey, Sarah Jane, Martha, Rose, Donna… and Jack. But I kept going, determined to find my Dad, wherever he was. I had to find him, and save him. Save him from something I didn't know. I reached a pitch black hallway, and slowed down to a creep. I felt along the walls, which were smooth and cold. Quietly, in the background, I could hear a tapping… one, two, three, four… one, two, three, four… one, two, three, four… and in front of me, stood in a blue spotlight, was a man: white blonde cropped hair, unshaven, wearing a dark hoodie. He was staring at me, a manic grin upon his face. His eyes were empty and mad. He didn't move or speak; he just kept staring.

"Jenny!" I heard Dad call from somewhere far off. I was frozen to the spot, in front of this man I didn't know. I felt more scared than I ever had, even more than when Dad almost regenerated after that Dalek shot him.

"Jenny!" Dad repeated, his voice louder than before. I stayed where I was.

"Jenny! Are you alive?" The voice was morphing. It was half Dad, half someone else, and it was getting louder.

"Jenny, speak to me!" It wasn't coming from the TARDIS anymore; the voice was calling to me, in my head. It definitely wasn't Dad now.

"Jenny!" I shut my eyes tight, willing the voice to get out of my head. Leave me alone! I have to find Dad, I can't be distracted!

"Jenny!" I opened my eyes. Gwen Cooper was leaning over me, her face full of anxiety and pain. She had a few cuts on her cheeks, but was otherwise uninjured. I took a deep breath, and tried to get my thoughts together: we were in the Hub, and there was an alarm… yeah, an alarm beeping, the room was red… and Jack, there was something happening to him… he had a bomb in his stomach, that was it… and it was activated… we had escaped, down the corridor, Gwen and me… after something happened with Jack, though, I remembered his face close to mine… oh! No, push that memory away, Jenny, get back to the task at hand… right, Gwen, we had got out on to the docks, and the Hub exploded, and now we were here…

"Hello." I said finally. I sat up quickly, but as soon as I'd done that, my head started pounding.

"Thank god! I thought you were dead!" Gwen said, but her voice sounded blurry in my ears.

"Nah, never," I muttered, looking around. We were laid amongst hundreds of bricks and parts of the Hub, all a mess of rubble. It stretched out all the way across the bay. There were flames flickering orange in sporadic dots around the place. I climbed slowly to my feet, pulling Gwen with me.

"We have to find Jack and Ianto!" Gwen shouted. She sounded desperate.

"Yeah, yeah, Jack," I mumbled back. My head was still a little disorientated. "Jack, Ianto, right," I shook my head. "Yes. Right, allons-y." I grabbed Gwen's hand, pulling her along as she staggered behind me, her other hand holding her head. I went straight for the epicentre: Jack. Jack was the bomb, he made the crater where the Hub once was. As we stumbled over the rubble, the pounding in my head numbed and my ears regained some normal hearing.

"Whoa, whoa! You can't go back there, love. No, no, no, it's too dangerous!" A man in a luminous jacket shouted, cutting across our path. I attempted to shove past him, but he held me back. Ordinarily, I would have easily got him out of the way, but my strength was slightly diminished after the bomb.

"My friend's still in there!" Gwen yelled weakly.

"Our friends were there!" I repeated, screaming in the guy's face.

"Go back to the ambulance, both of you," the man continued, pointing over to a van parked a few metres away. "Walk as quick as you can, now."

"No!" I yelled.

"Let us go and get him! Let us go! No!" Gwen cried, her voice breaking. We kept trying to get past, to get to Jack. His body would have been blown to pieces, but the man couldn't die; he would come back. It was probably going to be disgusting and gruesome to watch, but he was Dad's friend and mine, too. I would never forgive myself if we just left him, and I knew Dad would be disappointed. So I brought all the strength I had to the surface to fight against this man, and I kept pushing, kept screaming. Gwen was doing the same, but mixed with cries. He was gripping our wrists tightly, and attempted to pick us both up and throw us over his shoulders.

"Get off!" I screamed, and concentrated as much power as possible into my free arm, swinging it into his face. I hit the edge of his nose, and I felt the crack underneath his human skin. He yelled in pain and dropped our arms, bringing his hands to his face for a second. We scrambled back a couple of steps, but I kept my eyes on him. He had blood dripping from his nose, which was now covering his hands too. He glared at me.

"You bitch!" He exclaimed angrily, a snarl on his face. He lunged forwards and grabbed my waist, hurling me over his shoulder roughly. This time I wasn't quick enough, and he was holding me too tightly to get away. I carried on screaming and kicking his chest, thumping his back. Upside-down, I saw Gwen being tackled to the ground. She was putting up a good fight of her own, but I assumed the ringing in her ears and a pounding head lasted longer in humans than Time Lords, so she was overpowered fairly easily. The man dragged her along the rubble by her waist, not able to lift both of us. We were still screaming and hitting him as he gradually hauled us over to the ambulance he had pointed out.

"Hold them down!" The man shouted to another guy sat in the ambulance. "Control said no survivors!"

"What do you mean, no survivors? This was planned?" I asked loudly, my breathing heavy. The two men threw us down on to the stretchers in the back of the van. They pinned us down, the first guy leaning across me and the other on Gwen. They both had syringes full of clear liquid.

"You really think that's gonna work on me?" I laughed at them. They ignored it, and carried on. The guy above me turned around, holding my left arm down. He stabbed me with the syringe, through my new jacket, but suddenly I heard a yelp of pain from behind him. He stopped injecting me halfway and span around, only for Gwen to whack a red metal cylinder over his forehead. He fell to the floor, and I saw the other man collapsed, too.

"Oh, Gwen Cooper," I breathed. "You're good." She smiled at me, wheezing for breath.

"Jenny! He's injected you!" She exclaimed suddenly, eyes widening as she noticed the syringe still sticking out of my arm. She jumped off the stretcher immediately and ripped the needle out.

"Are you OK?" She said panicking, helping me up.

"Yeah, I'm Time Lord," I replied as casually as possible. "Won't affect me like a human. Didn't get you, did he?" I climbed off the stretcher, but I felt the liquid move towards my hearts as I did so. I screamed, and fell back down to the floor. My left heart was struggling, and I could feel the beats getting slower and slower. It was like someone had plunged their hand into my chest and snatched out the air. Gwen knelt next to me, eyes wider than before.

"Jenny! What's happening, what do I do?" She screamed.

"My left heart's stopped working," I panted. "Need to get it beating again!"

"What do you need me to do?" Gwen yelled back.

"How do humans cope with just one?" I screamed, the pain becoming almost unbearable. "Hit me! Gwen, hit my chest!" She lifted her fist into the air and propelled it back down, hammering my ribcage.

"Again!" I shrieked. She repeated the same action, and this time, I felt my heart skip slightly. It flickered, and after a couple of seconds, started a regular Time Lord heartbeat.

"Oh, Gwen," I said, breathing heavily. "You are brilliant." She sighed with relief, and leant back against the stretcher.

"You have two hearts?" She said sarcastically a few seconds later. I chuckled in response, and leapt up quickly.

"Come on, we've got to find Ianto," I said, taking two guns from the unconscious men on the floor, and passing one to Gwen. "Here." She cocked the revolver.

"Gwen?" I said. She looked up at me. "You've got a red dot on you." The small light was quivering just above her stomach. She glanced down at it, and as she looked back up to me, it followed her eye line and stopped in her pupil.

"Ready?" She said quietly.

"Ready." I replied, grinning. I cocked the gun in my hand. Gwen held hers up, pointing back at the sniper on the roof, and I counted down: "Three, two, one, now!"

We leapt out of the ambulance, up at the sniper, who immediately shot back at us. It was a sudden blast of noise in the relative silence since Jack blew up, and it kept going for a minute. We shot from the ground, amongst the rubble of the Hub, as the sniper fired back at us. One of the ambulance men had already been killed by the figure on the roof. Gwen and me both stayed silent and determined, when suddenly all the shooting stopped. I sat up slowly, keeping my eyes on the sniper. It fired again, and I returned the favour instantly, ducking back down to the floor as I did so. I saw the sniper retreat and disappear into the night sky, and turned to Gwen with a grin.

"Think it's gone, Gwen." I whispered. She sprang up to her feet, and ran to the front of the ambulance, telling me to get in quickly. I followed her, gun still in my hand (to comfort my natural instinct more than anything), and jumped into the left seat. Gwen was already sat behind the wheel, and threw her revolver on my lap. The engine revved loudly as she pushed her foot down on the accelerator hard, and we pulled away with a screech and a puff of fume.

"Gwen, we have to leave this thing. We have to get away, they'll know we survived, they'll be looking for us." I said, slightly frantically, as Gwen drove the ambulance like Dad flew the TARDIS: fast, loud, and daring. She stayed silent, an indomitable look on her face, but glanced at me briefly. She continued for a couple of seconds, and then slammed on the brakes. The ambulance squealed, coming to a harsh stop, and I leapt out of the door straight away with both guns in my hand. I walked purposefully around the back of the vehicle, whose doors were still wide open, and met Gwen coming from the other side. I passed her a gun, and we both stepped in, glaring at the one man left sprawled across the floor.

"Who do you work for?" Gwen asked him, pointing the gun directly at his head. He made no sound.

"Who do you work for?" I repeated, lifting my own revolver.

"The NHS." He said, his voice holding a hint of question and sarcasm. Gwen shifted her aim, shot just to the side of the man's face as a warning, and put the gun back between his eyes.

"Who do you work for?" She yelled again. "You tried to kill us. Jenny nearly died, and our friends, our friends, they could be dead, so don't think I won't use this."

"Government, I'm working for the government," he spluttered. "I just follow orders, that's all."

"That is not an excuse." I said in reply, my teeth gritted. Dad's morals were coming through, despite the soldier programmed inside my head. We all paused, and Gwen pulled her gun back a little. The man pounced forwards, revealing a syringe gripped in his hand, and aimed for Gwen's leg. She stepped backwards quickly, and without thinking, I shot him in the foot, causing a scream of pain to be let out of his mouth.

"Why would the government want to destroy Torchwood? Why?" Gwen shrieked.

"I just do as I'm told," he repeated, genuinely scared of us now. "I'm just following orders, that's all." I heard sirens behind us.

"Please come in." A muffled voice said. It was coming from the man's jacket, and I knew there were people on their way, coming to find us. Gwen pressed the gun into the bridge of the man's nose, just so that he screwed up his face in terror. After a couple of seconds, however, she backed away, gun still pointed at him.

"Come on, Jenny." She said quietly, and ran off in the opposite direction.

"You," I said to the man, who was staring at me with fear. "Just remember this: you have your own choice. Next time, use your head. Don't just follow orders. You know what's right and wrong." He continued staring, but I thought I could detect a hint of guilt in his expression. I looked at him sadly, and took off after Gwen.

A few feet down the road, and just around the corner, I found her waiting for me.

"What took you so long?" She exclaimed, kicking up a run again with me.

"Just a word with the ambulance guy," I replied. "Heading anywhere in particular?"

"Home, I have to get Rhys." She said.

"Who's Rhys? Boyfriend?"

"Husband." She turned abruptly into a building and paused only to hit a code into a silver box by the door. I followed her inside, and we rushed up a flight of stairs and into a flat. I saw photos of Gwen and a man, I assumed Rhys, all over the first room. She burst through a door on the right, flicking its light on. I heard a man groan as he woke up suddenly.

"Get up, now! We've got to go!"

"Bloody hell, Gwen!"

"Get up, get dressed. We have to get out of here."

"What's going on, man?"

"Listen, someone is trying to kill us, and if they're after me, they're going to come after you," I heard Gwen explain at a furious speed. "Now get up and get dressed!"

"What?" There was a gap in their talking, where I heard some shuffling and throwing stuff in a bag. I stood in Gwen's living room slash kitchen, unsure of what to do exactly. I looked down at the gun in my hand and thought of Dad, and was suddenly hit with a flash of guilt. I didn't have time to dwell on it, though, as Gwen ran back into the room.

"Rhys, car keys?" She shouted.

"Try the top of the fridge, I think!" Rhys called from the next room.

"I've tried the top of the fridge, man!" She yelled back. "Come on! If you put the keys in the same place all the time we wouldn't have to go through this time and time again!" I stifled a giggle and leapt into action simultaneously, rifling through Gwen's stuff for their keys without hesitation. I heard a few thumps as I was shuffling quickly through some papers, and glanced up to see Rhys stood half-naked, a phone and book in his hand.

"Wow, OK," I stumbled. "Hello!"

"Rhys!" Gwen screamed, clearly embarrassed, but she had no time to let it affect her.

"Oh, sorry," Rhys said, attempting to cover himself to no avail. "Who's this?" We both ignored him for the time being.

"What are you doing?" I heard Gwen question, indicating the items in Rhys's hand.

"Packing."

"You're not going to have time to read, and they can trace us with that!" She explained, not bothering to hide her annoyance, and flinging the objects over her shoulder.

"Well I don't know, I've never gone into hiding before, have I?" Rhys said slightly angrily. I moved across to the window, peering out for signs of anyone following us. Gwen and Rhys carried on searching for the keys behind me and bickering at the same time. Suddenly, there was a ringing sounding in the room.

"No! Rhys, Rhys!" Gwen yelled at him, but he'd already picked up the phone.

"Hello?" I rolled my eyes at Gwen.

"Jesus Christ, Rhys!" She hissed, giving a knowing expression back to me, and making throttling gestures with her hands. I chuckled.

"It's Ianto, alright?" He said, passing the phone to his wife.

"Christ sake, man!" Gwen whispered angrily to him, and put the phone to her ear. "Ianto, are you OK?" I began searching for the keys in the kitchen drawers as I listened to the one-sided conversation, piecing together what they were talking about.

"No, no I haven't. Sorry, hang on. Do you think he survived?"

"Yeah, we had a run-in with one of them. Said he was working for the government."

"Yeah, Jenny's with me. How did they get close enough to plant it inside him, Ianto?"

Failing to find the keys in the drawers, I moved back over to the sofa, lifting the cushions up.

"Keys!" I yelled happily, finding them underneath the second one, and throwing them in the air in celebration.

"Let's go!" Rhys said, now fully dressed.

"Take the bag, get the car ready!" Gwen called, still on the phone to Ianto. Rhys ran out of the flat, me right behind him. I threw him the keys as we got outside, and he pressed a button on them. The car parked on the path lit up a couple of times, and Rhys got in the driver's seat. I whacked the back door open, and climbed in hurriedly.

"Nice to meet you, Rhys." I said.

"And you, what's your name?" He replied, breathless.

"Jenny." I turned around to look out of the back window. There was a black jeep heading steadily up the road, coming for us.

"Rhys!" I shouted, pointing at the jeep. He immediately pressed on the car horn.

"Gwen!" He yelled, as she ran out of the door and down the path on to the road. The jeep had stopped where it was, a few metres away. Gwen pulled out her gun, firing it four times at the vehicle. One, two, three, four… I had a momentary flashback of a man stood in a blue spotlight, grinning like a maniac, and tapping in beats of four…

Gwen dived into the front seat of the car.

"Go!" She screamed, and Rhys put his foot down, the tyres squealing as we left the scene.

About ten minutes later, Rhys slowed the car and pulled up on the side of a dark street.

"Right, I think we made it." He said sighing. Gwen and me both hopped out speedily.

"Let's go." Gwen said.

"Where?" Rhys exclaimed, still fumbling with his seatbelt. "Can't we just take a minute? Just to…"

"Number plate recognition." Gwen replied.

"They can trace us with that." I added.

"We need to ditch it." She finished.

"It's a brand new car, Gwen!" Rhys said, his voice getting louder with exasperation.

"It's no good to us now, OK?" She replied with a sigh. "We need to keep moving."

"Well wouldn't it be better if we gave ourselves up? You know, like, tell somebody what happened?" Rhys asked, completely innocent and clueless.

"When we know what happened, we'll tell someone. Until then, we're going underground." Gwen said. We had started walking away from the car.

"Well, let me carry the bag." Rhys said, giving in to his wife. I got the feeling that Gwen was often the more dominant of the two.

"Huh?" Gwen asked, panic rising in her voice, and she stopped to look at Rhys.

"You want your trigger finger free, don't you? Both of you?" He said with a smile. Gwen let out a relieved grin, passing Rhys her bag, and pecking him on the lips.

"Come on, you two!" I said smiling. "Plenty of time for that later!" I turned around and carried on walking, not knowing where to. I heard Gwen and Rhys giggle quietly, then they jogged to catch up.

By the next morning we'd managed to get to central Cardiff, and were stood agitated at a cashpoint. Rhys was trying to get some money for us, as Gwen's account had been frozen and I didn't have one, not being human and all.

_"What about yours?" Rhys asked me._

_"Haven't got one." I replied._

_"You don't have a bank account?"_

_"No, why would I? Dad doesn't either, we're not human."_

_"You're an alien?"_

_"Yep."_

_"Bloody hell, man."_

I was leaning against the brick wall, my foot twitching with impatience.

"If my Dad was here, he would just sonic the thing and we'd have as much money as we wanted. Probably more, thinking about it." I commented out loud. Gwen shot me a warning look.

"No, they've frozen mine as well!" Rhys exclaimed, ripping his card from the machine.

"Shit!" Gwen muttered in frustration.

"Language, Gwen Cooper!" I said sarcastically, trying to lighten the situation. In all honesty, I was rather enjoying myself. It felt like an adventure with Dad, except he wasn't there, and as of yet we hadn't met any aliens.

"What now? How are we going to manage without money?" Rhys asked fiercely.

"We'll be fine, Rhys, don't worry," I replied. "Dad and me go all over the place, and we _never_ carry any."

"Who is your Dad?" Rhys asked me, and I could hear the irritation growing in his voice. "He sounds like a saint the way you go on about him."

"Maybe he is." I muttered to myself, and I honestly believed it.

"We need to get to London." Gwen said seriously, ignoring us both.

"London? Everything's dearer in London!" Rhys exclaimed, shocked.

"That's where all the decisions are made," She explained. "Whoever wants us dead, that's where they'll be."

"Right, so where we should be is John O'Groats!" Rhys said sarcastically.

"Where's John O'Groats?" I asked, voicing my thoughts aloud again. Rhys stared at me for a second, disbelief all over his face.

"I need to speak to people, but I haven't got anybody's numbers anymore. So we've got to go there, OK? We've got to go," Gwen continued. "These things are all linked up. Soon as you put your card in, bells start ringing somewhere. Come on." We set off immediately, pausing every so often to check the direction vehicles were heading in. According to Rhys, the best way to get to London discretely was by sneaking into the back of a lorry. Gwen told me that he worked in haulage and driving, so I trusted his judgement. We had been wandering for a couple of hours, when Rhys pointed out a big red lorry, and worked out that it was headed straight for central London.

"Now me, I use an electronic seal, see! Even the driver doesn't know the code. So, no one gets in until it reaches its destination. But this clown…" He explained, fiddling with the fastenings on the side of the lorry.

"You sure he's going to London?" Gwen asked, leaning against one of the wheels and staring across at a café on the other side of the street.

"He knows what he's talking about, Gwen." I replied, pacing around in circles. Not running around all the time was beginning to drive me crazy.

"Thank you, Jenny!" Rhys said, smiling at me with satisfaction. "I don't question how you defend the world against extra-terrestrial infiltration. Don't you question my knowledge of the haulage industry, right?" He directed at Gwen.

"Sorry."

"It's a small company, Gwen," he continued. "Cardiff to London. Piss poor security-"

"What is it with you lot and swearing?" I exclaimed.

"-And best of all, guaranteed food cargo. I'm absolutely bloody starving." He finished, untying the lorry enough for us to climb inside.

"My point proved exactly." I muttered, smiling as I followed Gwen behind the red canvas. I hopped in, and stared as I realised that we'd chosen a lorry full of potatoes.

"There is food, Rhys," I said. "Can't fault you on that, even if they do look like tiny Sontarans."

"I've got the smell of bacon in my nostrils, and I'm looking at a lorry-load of raw spuds!" Gwen exclaimed, laughing slightly as Rhys clambered inside behind us.

"It mightn't only be spuds," he argued. "There might be other things at the back." We stepped up on to the higher stack of potatoes, and jumped up on to the ones near the front of the lorry. I turned around and pulled Gwen up, then Rhys, and just in time; as Rhys's foot slid over the side, a man popped his head under the canvas where we'd climbed in. We stayed as quiet as possible, and apparently he couldn't see us because he simply left again. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, that was close." I mumbled, giggling. We all laid on our stomachs across the potatoes, laughing at our success.

"Have you got your pen knife?" Rhys asked Gwen.

"Rhys, you are not eating uncooked potatoes!" She replied, riled with a touch of amusement.

"We'll need it to cut our way out!" He explained.

"Good point." I said. Abruptly the lorry's engine started up, and pulled away with a jolt. Gwen and Rhys were tossed forwards slightly with the sudden movement, but they found it funny more than anything, and I joined in with their laughter.

About an hour later the lorry was well on its way to London. We were still laid on our fronts, looking out across the bed of spuds. Gwen was in the middle, and I was on her right.

"Oh, God, this is comfortable. Bloody torture man!" Rhys exclaimed, moving around.

"Rhys!" I said. The swearing was getting on my nerves; another trait of Dad's that was obviously rubbing off on me.

"Sorry," He replied, and turned his attention to Gwen. "How are you, love?"

"My best friend's belly had a bomb go off in it last night. Someone's been trying to kill us ever since, nearly getting Jenny. I'm travelling at seventy miles an hour on top of a bed of potatoes, and I think I'm going to be sick." She replied honestly.

"That's all part of the adventure!" I said to her, grinning happily.

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Gwen said to me, smiling back.

"'Course I am, it's like being with my Dad." I replied.

"Anyway, travel sick is it, Gwen?" Rhys asked her.

"When have you ever known me to be travel sick?" She said.

"Well, when have you ever travelled like this?" He questioned. Gwen was grinning happily, like she had a secret: a good secret. And she did.

"What?" Rhys asked, noticing it too.

"You know some announcements, you rehearse in your head?" She started. Rhys murmured in acknowledgement.

"Yeah, and this wasn't quite what I had in mind…" she continued.

"What do you mean, announcements?" Rhys asked her suspiciously. Gwen replied with a sideways look and widening her eyes, a smile still playing on her lips. Rhys was starting to get the idea, finally. A grin grew on his face.

"Oh, god, no!" He exclaimed.

"Yes," Gwen replied.

"Bloody hell, no!"

"Yes!" She repeated. I moved away from the couple slightly. I felt like this was a special, private moment, and my presence so close to them was not exactly ideal.

"Oh, come here!" Rhys said happily, pulling his wife close to him and kissing her cheek. "Oh my god, I don't believe it!" There was a pause. "Hang on… the bomb, the guns, the car chase, the hiding from the law! God! What am I like, letting you do all that in your condition?"

"Well, you carried my bag," Gwen replied quickly. I chuckled.

"I'm serious!" Rhys exclaimed. "This changes everything!"

"No, no, it doesn't," Gwen said. "We're up the same creek, and we still need a paddle."

"Yeah, but with three of us, plus Jenny, in a boat?" He argued. Gwen nor me replied, and we all just stayed silent for a few minutes. My thoughts went straight back to Dad again: what was he doing? Was he trying to find me? Maybe he preferred it on his own, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone… like Rhys said, "this changes everything". Was my sudden appearance in Dad's life the same? Did I change it completely? Did he like that I was there with him? He told me he would love me to go travelling with him once… but that was after he'd lost Donna. He was grieving, was he thinking straight? Maybe he said that genuinely, but changed his mind afterwards. I didn't know what I would do if that was true. I would miss him so much… I missed him now, and I felt so guilty for using the guns earlier. Dad had been helping me and was incredibly patient when it came to weapons and fighting. He knew it would be difficult for me to ignore my natural instincts, but with his support I was getting better. The guilt in my hearts now was unbearable as I imagined the disappointment in his face that I'd picked the revolvers up with no hesitation, and even shot that man in the foot. I felt my eyes fill with tears. I put my fingers up to my cheek, where I felt a drop of water trickling down my face as if it was escaping. I sniffed, and tried to stop the tears from falling; if I let it go, I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to stop. I told myself to stop being stupid, of course he was coming for you, Jen. He's your Dad. He would forgive you. But that just brought up more tears, and I couldn't stop them from fleeing. Eventually I gave up, and just laid there, crying silently as Gwen and Rhys discussed baby names happily next to me.

"Jenny?" Gwen said suddenly. I glanced over and saw them both looking at me with concern. I tried to wipe away the tears from my skin.

"I'm fine," I replied, knowing what she was going to say. "I'm fine."

"No you're not," she said. "What's wrong?" I felt torn: I wanted to let everything out, tell Gwen and Rhys that I really missed Dad. But at the same time, I didn't want to say. I felt stupid.

"It's…Dad." I whispered eventually. Neither of them said anything, just waited for me to carry on. "I miss him so much. I can't help thinking, and I know it's stupid, but I keep thinking that he's not looking for me. That he's better off without me around."

"No," Gwen said immediately. "No way, that's not the man I met over the subwave. The Doctor I met never gave up, and when he saw you on that screen, he had that look that all the best fathers have when they see their kids. The look my Dad has when he sees me, and the look Rhys will have when our baby is born." I listened to her. I so wanted to believe what she was telling me, but now I was crying, everything just made it worse. I screwed my face up and covered it with my hands, determined to hide the tears.

"Come here, sweetheart." Gwen said quietly, pulling me towards her. I gave in and let her hug me, my head resting on her shoulder, and she rocked me back and forth.

"You're gonna be a great mum, Gwen Cooper." I smiled. Suddenly the lorry stopped, the brakes squeaking sharply, and the driver honked the horn. We all sat up, looking around as if we'd be able to see what was happening through the canvas.

"Are we here already?" I asked.

"No, haven't been driving long enough." Rhys replied. We stayed quiet for a few more seconds, waiting for information.

"We are coming tomorrow."

I looked at Gwen and Rhys, who both looked scared and panicked.

"We are coming tomorrow."

I leapt up to the top of the lorry, peering through a tiny gap in the potatoes. Out of the front window, I could see dozens of children, stopped dead in the road. Their mouths were moving in time with each other and the chants.

"We are coming tomorrow."

I turned back to the couple.

"It's the children." I said simply.

After a total of thirty eight repetitions of "we are coming tomorrow", the lorry had started moving again, and just under two hours later Rhys and me were stood outside of a red phone box as Gwen used the last of their coins on a call to the Home Office. I moved a couple of feet away as the box reminded me of the TARDIS a little.

"So," Rhys started a clear attempt at making conversation. "What species of alien are you?"

"Time Lord." I replied distractedly.

"What's that, then?" He continued.

"A race from Gallifrey," I explained quickly. "We've got two hearts and can regenerate."

"Two hearts?" Rhys exclaimed.

"Yep," I said. "But I'm only an echo really… I was created using Dad's DNA in a progenation machine meant to make soldiers." Rhys looked blank.

"Oh right," he said. "So you two live on this Gallifrey, then?"

"No," I said quietly. "It's gone, destroyed in the Time War, years and years ago, way before I was born. Dad's the last true Time Lord alive."

"Oh," Rhys replied sadly. "I'm sorry about that."

"Yeah." I muttered.

"You look human," he continued. "About twenty, I'd say."

"You lot look Time Lord," I retorted with a grin. "And I'm far off twenty."

"Oh yeah? How old are you, then?"

"Oh, about five weeks."

"Five weeks?" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, I was made in a progenation machine, remember?" I replied. At that moment, Gwen turned and raised her fist to us, a happy grin on her face. I did a thumbs up back, and a few seconds later she put the phone down and left the box.

"Right, we've got an appointment with Frobisher in an hour, over in that café." She said, pointing across to a cosy looking building.

"Who's Frobisher?" I asked as we started walking towards it.

"He's a secretary to the Home Office," she replied. "He should be able to help us." We marched down the London street towards the café silently, and went straight inside when we reached it. The sign was white and red with lights hung in the windows, and there were several tables scattered around evenly inside. We took one in the centre of the room, where we could see the door clearly, and sat down: Gwen and me on the side facing the windows, and Rhys opposite us. A waitress walked glumly over as soon as my trousers hit the plastic chair.

"Drinks?" She asked, notebook in hand and a pen poised above it.

"No thanks." Gwen replied instantly, eyes on the door. The waitress stalked off, muttering something about people taking up tables.

"And this Frobisher knows about Torchwood?" I asked Gwen quietly, leaning in so just the three of us could hear.

"Yes, all of his office do," she replied. "He might be able to find out where Jack is."

"Good," I said, pausing for a few seconds. "And he knows who you are?"

"Yes," she said, her eyes still focused on the café door. "They have all Torchwood members on file." We stayed silent for the next half an hour or so, only a bit of small talk from Rhys interrupting the quiet.

_"Gwen, did you know that Jenny is an alien?"_

_"Oh, bloody hell, I'm starving."_

_"We've been sat here ages, man!" _

It was coming close to an hour, and Frobisher should have got there soon. I was getting impatient… I wasn't used to all the waiting around in the TARDIS.

"Can we trust this guy?" Rhys whispered, leaning close into the table.

"He's our man in the government," Gwen replied equally as quiet. "If we can't, we really are in trouble."

"Gwen, we really are in trouble!" Rhys mumbled.

"We've got to trust someone, Rhys, OK?" She muttered back. Suddenly the door of the café opened, a bell ringing above it, and a tall girl walked nervously inside. She was dark skinned and her hair was in dreadlocks.

"Hi, I'm Lois." She said quietly, stopping next to our table. I could hear the apprehension in her voice.

"Where's Frobisher?" Gwen asked her sharply.

"He's not coming."

"Why not?" I exclaimed, slightly louder than I perhaps should have.

"Oh god, this is probably the worst mistake of my life," Lois said, sitting down next to Rhys. "I've read your files. Some of the stuff you've done, you're like unsung national heroes."

"Listen, we don't do autographs and we don't want to be rude, but why are we talking to you and not your boss?" Gwen replied, the anger spilling into her voice.

"Because if he knew you were here you'd be dead." Lois said, her eyes wide. Gwen and me glanced worriedly at each other.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He gave the order to have Captain Jack Harkness killed." She said. What?

"Are you sure?" Gwen asked quietly, her expression unchanged.

"I've seen it with my own eyes." Lois nodded.

"We really are in trouble." Rhys murmured to himself.

"Do you know a Captain Andrew Staines?" Lois said, launching into questions. "A Colonel Michael Sanders? Ellen Hunt?" Gwen and me said no to all three names, and waited for further information.

"They're all dead," Lois stated simply. "They were killed on the same day as Jack Harkness. I didn't sign the Official Secrets Act to cover up murder! But then, I didn't take the job to commit treason on my second day. What am I doing here?"

"You tell us, Lois."

"If you're the bad guys, why doesn't it say that on your file? And if you're the good guys, who am I working for, and why do they want you dead?" I blinked. Lois was looking at both Gwen and me.

"Why are you including me?" I asked her quickly.

"Well, you're both Torchwood. You're on file."

"I am?" I said, taken by surprise. "I'm not a member of Torchwood."

"You're Annie Smith, right?" Lois asked. I frowned.

"Possibly, depends," I muttered. Gwen looked at me with a confused expression too.

"Hang on," Lois muttered, and I could tell she was thinking hard. "You're file said you were a part of Torchwood in the 19th century. How are you here?" I stared at her, trying to comprehend what she just said.

"I… don't know." I replied honestly. The only time I'd been to that era was Christmas 1851, and we met Jackson Lake and Rosita… but we didn't find Torchwood then.

"Unless I haven't done it yet," I mumbled. "I mean, we could always go back there in the TARDIS, I never know where Dad plans on landing, not sure he does either most of the time... but if that's the case, then I must find him again at some point!" I grinned to myself. Lois was staring at me as if I was a Dalek.

"Listen, this is a lot to talk about, and we're going to arouse suspicion," Rhys said, looking mainly at me. "And we haven't ordered." I rolled my eyes, and he turned to Lois. "When we went on the run, we didn't have any money, see? We put the last of the coins into the phone box to get through to you. So if there's any chance you could…" Gwen looked completely mortified, and Lois had a slight hint of annoyance on her face, but she handed him a couple of notes anyway.

"Thank you, oh great, thanks," Rhys smiled. "That's magic." He stood up, looking at Gwen and me for our orders.

"I'll have steak pie and chips, and a cup of tea." Gwen muttered.

"Do they have pears? I just love pears!" I grinned up at Rhys. "Dad doesn't, he hates them, but I tried one in Paris in 1623, and let me tell you, it was gorgeous!"

"I'll see what I can do." He replied, looking slightly amused.

"Just a latte for me." Lois said to him.

"OK, I won't be a sec, I'll leave you to it." Rhys said, still smiling a little at me as he walked over to the counter.

"Thanks, we owe you one," Gwen said to Lois. "A big one."

"Everyone in the office seems to think that what's happening with the kids is all to do with aliens, and that they'll be here tomorrow," Lois continued. "And there's something big being built on the top floor of the MI5 building."

"OK, what do you mean, something?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know. But it's like they're getting ready, and if you lot – Torchwood – if you're the alien experts, and they really are coming tomorrow, why does Mr Frobisher want you out of the way all of a sudden?"

"I've no idea, but we're going to find out." Gwen replied. "Can you tell us anything about Captain Jack Harkness? Or Ianto Jones?"

"Jones is missing," Lois replied. "I've been told Captain Harkness is dead."

"Well, that's not true." I muttered.

"That's what I thought," Lois said as Rhys sat back down, placing two cups of tea and a latte on the table. "I overheard Mr Frobisher say to keep him under surveillance. I mean, why do that to a dead person?" We stayed quiet for a few seconds, both of us thinking. Lois was right, Jack was still alive somewhere, obviously. The man was immortal… even a bomb exploding inside his stomach wouldn't kill him.

"Do you know where they're keeping him?" Gwen asked.

"I've got a floor plan in my bag." Lois replied, bending down to pick it up.

"Steak pie and chips, twice, and a pear?" The waitress said, stood by the table holding a tray full of food.

"Oh, fantastic!" I exclaimed, taking the pear from her and biting into it enthusiastically.

"Lovely, thank you." Rhys repeated as he and Gwen grabbed their plates greedily and started tucking in. As soon as the waitress had walked away, Lois continued her explanation.

"It's a military compound." She said, pulling some papers from her bag.

"Are you sure?" Gwen said, examining the diagrams that Lois passed to her. I looked over Gwen's arm at them.

"That's where Mr Frobisher told them to take him. Salt?" Lois replied, passing the salt shaker to Gwen.

"That's brilliant, Lois." I grinned at her.

"Can you?" Rhys muttered, indicating one of the sauces. Lois passed it over straight away. "Oh, thanks!"

"The only problem is, how do we get inside?" Gwen wondered aloud.

"Oh, don't worry about that," I smiled. "There's always a way."

"Well, Mr Frobisher's just authorised the release of a body from Ashton Down," Lois continued. "This is Rupesh Patanjali."

"They must have thought he was one of us." Gwen muttered.

"The undertaker's name is Richard Rossiter and he's got an appointment to pick him up at five thirty today. I was thinking, access to a funeral director would be easier than access to a secure military compound. So, he would have to pass through here at some time between five and five fifteen to get to Ashton Down for five thirty, and there'd be no witnesses," Lois explained confidently. "The name of the contact at the compound is Corporal Camara. His number's on there, and he'll be expecting you. Sugar?"

"See?" I grinned at Gwen and Rhys, who were staring at Lois, both clearly impressed.

"I'm a PA, it's what I do." Lois said quickly, noticing their expressions too.

"When all this is over, and you need a job, come and see me." Gwen smiled at her. Lois grinned back, and we finished our food with more optimism than when we entered the café.

It was five past five, and we were stood at the side of a quiet road having just pulled the undertaker's car over and tied Richard Rossiter up, like Lois had suggested. I had wrapped a length of rope around his arms and knotted it tight, pangs of guilt hitting my hearts every so often when my mind drifted back to Dad. Gwen and Rhys had pulled an empty coffin from the back of his car, and we put the man inside it, carrying him over to the trees at the edge of the road and leaving him there. He was trying to shout, but the strip of material I'd gagged him with was stopping too much noise from escaping. I didn't feel good about it in the slightest, but I kept telling myself that it was for the greater cause. A soldier does anything in their power to fight for what's right, even if they have to go the wrong way about it – and I was programmed to be a soldier. Think like one, Jenny.

"I'm sorry," Gwen said to the man as we carried the coffin. "I don't suppose you believe it, but this is all in the national interest." Afterwards we jumped into the front of the funeral car, Rhys first grabbing the man's suit from the back, and then drove off.

"Oh, Dad would not be proud of me." I muttered. Gwen looked at me, and I thought I saw some sympathy in her eyes.

"Here," she said, passing me a thin silver stick. "That will take out any security cameras. You take that, and leave the fighting to me for now." I smiled at her, truly thankful, but still slightly guilty that the pregnant one had to do the physical stuff. About fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the Ashton Down building. We stopped in front of a big gate, black with spikes sticking from the top. A man in a military-looking uniform strolled over to the car, and Gwen wound down her window.

"Hi, we're here to pick up a body, five thirty appointment. Corporal Camara?"

"Kodak's dead?" The man exclaimed, not very professionally. "When did that happen?" We all paused.

"No, he's the contact," Gwen told him. "The name of the deceased is Patanjali, Rupesh Patanjali."

"Jesus! Shit me self then," the man laughed, breathing a sigh of relief. "He owes me money. Sorry, I'll have to look in the back." I raised my eyebrows at Gwen as he walked to the back of the car, and she supressed a grin rather unsuccessfully.

"Kodak, got some body snatchers down at the gate for you." I heard the man say into a radio as he walked back past the window. The gates in front of us opened, and Rhys pulled up the drive way slowly. It took a couple of minutes to get to the building, where there was a man waiting outside in a similar uniform to the one at the gate.

"We're not going to get away with this." Rhys muttered as he put on the handbrake.

"We'll be fine." I replied confidently. If I'd learned anything with Dad, it was that you can literally get out of anything.

"You really shouldn't be here, Rhys." Gwen mumbled to her husband.

"I shouldn't? Hello?" His eyes flickered down to her stomach. "If Jack needs carrying, you two are going to need me." The man walked across to Rhys's window, which he wound down straight away.

"See that fire exit?" The man said, pointing to a door a little way up the building. "Do you want to back up to that? Save you having to wheel him round the back."

"OK." Rhys replied. I could tell he was anxious. Gwen and me hopped out of the car, following Kodak, the man, and left Rhys to park.

"There's an upside to this place being turned into a mortuary all of a sudden." Kodak said as we walked down a cold corridor. It was grey and dull, nothing like the TARDIS or any place Dad had taken me.

"Don't get many bodies, then?" I asked him.

"Not usually, but we've got three in at the moment," He paused, squinting at both of us. "Do I know you?"

"No, I don't think so." Gwen replied immediately.

"You don't look like undertakers," he began. "If more undertakers looked like you two, there'd be more of a demand for bereavement. Oh, hang on, I'm just going to open the fire door for your mate." He pulled his radio out of his jacket. "Corporal Camara at the west corridor. I'm just opening the fire door for the body snatchers, OK?" Gwen and me carried on walked down the hall. I grinned at her, my eyebrows raised slightly. She sniggered back, and I heard Kodak walking behind us again.

"She's shy, isn't she?" He said, dropping back to talk to Rhys, who was wheeling a trolley inside. "Not the blonde, though. She's a fiery one."

"I just prefer the company of dead people." Gwen replied lightly.

"And you're too old for me, I'm afraid," I called back. I chuckled as I imagined Dad's face if he were here.

"Is she seeing anyone?" Kodak asked Rhys about Gwen.

"She's married, married and pregnant, so you can forget it, mate, right?" Rhys snapped back, letting his anger get the better of him. Gwen turned around, making a 'stop' gesture to Rhys when Kodak wasn't looking. We had all stopped walking.

"You're a couple, aren't you?" Kodak said, pointing between Gwen and Rhys.

"Yep, they are." I smirked across to him as Gwen nodded. Kodak sighed and shook his head, turning around to the door behind him to unlock it. Gwen stepped towards Rhys slightly, making more hand gestures. I giggled at them both.

"No offence," Kodak said to Rhys, as he held the door open for Gwen and me. "You can't blame a man for trying." Inside was a cell, about twice the size that the TARDIS looked like it should be, and there was a filled body bag on a table. Kodak walked inside, leaning over the corpse.

"Do you want to check this is the right one?" He asked, unzipping the bag.

"Yeah," Gwen mumbled. I took out the tiny gadget that Gwen had given me earlier, and pointed it subtly at the camera in the corner of the ceiling.

"Corporal Camara?" I heard a voice say over Kodak's radio.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"Everything OK? The camera's not working."

"Yeah, just checking the paperwork. No problem." I saw Gwen lift her arms in the air behind Kodak, who was still stood over the body. She brought them down swiftly, hitting him on the head, and he collapsed to the floor.

"Good job, Gwen." I smiled, and took the keys from Kodak's unconscious hand. We left the cell, and I threw the keys to Rhys, who locked it up again. I pointed the gizmo at the camera in the corridor and knocked that one out, too.

"That's the one, come on." Gwen said to us, indicating another door along the hall.

"No, it's not." I said to her.

"How do you know?" Rhys asked.

"I can feel him." I replied. I walked quickly down the corridor, looking at each door, and tried to find that wrong feeling that came hand in hand with Jack Harkness. I stopped next to the third one down.

"It's this one." I said.

"Are you sure?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah, get it open, quickly!" I called, moving out of the way for Rhys to unlock it. A few seconds later, Gwen slammed the door open, and we were presented not with the grinning figure of Jack, or even a table with his body parts on it. It was just a wall of concrete.

"What the hell is that?" Gwen exclaimed. We all stared, wondering how the hell we were going to get Jack out. Suddenly, a dozen soldiers marched up the corridor towards us, guns out.

"Move! Move! Move! Positions!" They shot at us without any delay, and all my instincts told me to get in front of Gwen and Rhys. I felt in my pockets for the revolver, but I no longer had it. Bullets were still flying. Gwen was firing back at them, with the gun that she hadn't lost, unlike me. We were sheltering behind the metal door of the cell, and that was the only thing keeping Gwen and Rhys alive and me uninjured. I got closer to the concrete wall as the soldiers and Gwen kept firing, and put my ear next to it. Jack was definitely inside.

"We'll have to surrender!" I heard Rhys say to Gwen. She carried on shooting from her spot behind the door, but all of a sudden the firing from both sides stopped.

"I'd lay down your weapons if I were you," A woman said. "You're as trapped and helpless as the man in the concrete cell." I glanced around. Gwen was pointing her gun towards a woman dressed in black leather.

"Put the gun down!" She yelled as four soldiers stepped forwards, aiming their rifles directly at Gwen. I stayed next to the concrete wall, keeping my head against the cold grey solid.

"OK." Gwen said after a pause, and placed her gun slowly on the ground. She raised her hands in surrender, and Rhys followed her lead. The corridor was silent, but I could hear something on the other side of the concrete. It was moving closer. I couldn't make out what it was, until I heard a mechanical grip on the other side of the building.

"GET BACK!" I screamed, leaping backwards into Gwen as the concrete block was ripped from the cell next to us. I followed it immediately, jumping through the gap in the wall, and saw Ianto Jones driving a forklift truck carrying the concrete cell in its grip. I laughed at the sight, relief washing over me. I heard Gwen and Rhys run through the wall, and we all jumped up to the seats in the truck. Rhys got in first and Gwen and me clung to the outside as Ianto pushed the vehicle forwards.

"Ah, Ianto," Gwen called. "Took your time!" I glimpsed the soldiers stumbling out of the building, rifles still in their hands, and they shot at us. Gwen fired back with her revolver as Rhys held her from above us, flinching with every shot, but still trying to protect his wife. The truck was moving towards the gates, and the soldiers were in quick pursuit.

"Rhys, get out and move that truck!" Gwen shouted, indicating another vehicle parked in our way. He leapt out and ran across to it, and I climbed up into the seat next to Ianto.

"Hold on tight!" Ianto said, pushing the forklift over some grating on the ground. I looked behind us. The soldiers were climbing into cars and following us.

"Plan, Ianto?" I screamed.

"You'll see!" He yelled back. Gwen jumped off of the forklift, heading for Rhys who was just stepping out of the other truck.

"Move Rhys!" I heard her shriek. He ran away from it, and Gwen shot over his head. The truck blew up with a loud BOOM, and the fire kept the soldiers back behind it.

"Nice one!" I yelled, reaching for Gwen's hand as she leapt back up to the forklift, Rhys right behind her. Somehow, we all managed to fit inside the driving box, and Ianto was heading fast towards a quarry.

"Where the hell are you taking us, Ianto?" Rhys yelled next to me. Ianto stayed quiet, and a few seconds later pulled the truck up to the edge.

"What are we doing?" Gwen asked him. He pressed a few buttons before answering.

"You'll see in a moment, get the car started. We've only got a few minutes, come on!" The three of us hopped roughly out of the forklift, and ran over to a car parked a little way off. Rhys jumped in the driving seat, Gwen next to him, and me in the back again. I watched intently out of the front window: Ianto was fiddling with the controls, and the front was extending expertly over the quarry. Suddenly, the concrete block on the end dropped, and fell behind the quarry wall. A cloud of brown dust blew upwards into the sky, just as Ianto climbed quickly into the back of the car next to me, and Rhys drove off fast.

"I like you lot," I laughed. "That was just brilliant, Ianto!" He looked rather pleased with himself. The car slid fast down a slope into the quarry a few seconds later, and Rhys slammed on the brakes just in front of the huge pile of broken concrete. I jumped out of the door before Rhys pulled up the handbrake, and saw a man, completely naked, stood in the middle of the rubble.

"Told you I'd be back." He grinned at me.

"Captain Jack Harkness!" I yelled happily, but I kept my distance from him… he was entirely naked, after all. Imagine Dad's reaction!

"With a little help from us." Ianto called.

"What the hell is going on?" Jack asked sharply, still stood in the same spot.

"Dunno yet," Gwen replied, taking Rhys's coat. "But the latest from the kids is that it's happening tomorrow."

"I'm just in time then." He said, striding forwards with plenty of confidence.

"Get in the car, come on," Gwen said, holding the coat out and trying to avert her eyes. "We've got work to do." Jack took the coat with a grin, and threw it over his shoulder as he passed. We all walked back to the car, Gwen and Rhys in the front, and the rest of us in the back. I smiled up at Jack, who was covered in grey dust and had placed Rhys's coat across his lap according to Gwen's orders. He grinned back at me.

"This is where Torchwood really starts."

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: I wanted to show Jenny in this chapter as both strong in terms of fighting back and vulnerable like a child, because after all, that's technically what she is. Also tried to show her admiration and love for her Dad, and Gwen's mothering abilities :) tell me if you think I achieved this, or if not, let me know too .. Review! xx**


	8. Day Three

"This is us. This is Torchwood. This is home."

I was sat between Jack and Ianto on an old moth-eaten sofa in the middle of an unused warehouse. Ianto had found us this huge, cold grey building to temporarily base Torchwood, seeing as the Hub was utterly demolished. Gwen was stood up in front of us, pacing, and rubbing her hands together close to her chest.

"Whoa! Almost lost my eyebrows! Still, I'm good for something, see? Old Boy Scout!" Rhys called from a few feet away. He was lighting a fire.

"I'm freezing." Gwen complained.

"Is anyone gonna see us in here? You know, with all this firelighting stuff?" Rhys asked.

"It was abandoned in the nineties," Ianto explained. "Used to be a Torchwood holding facility, Torchwood One."

"Torchwood One, was that in Canary Wharf?" I wondered aloud, remembering something Dad had told me.

"Yeah, the Doctor might've mentioned it." Jack replied, almost reading my mind.

"Think he did." I said with a nod. Something to do with Rose…

"Anyway, this place has been rusting away for years." Jack continued.

"So what do we do? Just sit here?" Gwen asked, slightly frustrated.

"Worse than that, do I have to stay in these clothes?" Jack said, sarcastic with a drop of seriousness. "I mean, come on, tracksuit bottoms? Not a good look."

"Yeah, but your T-shirt's fine," I replied happily. "TARDIS blue!" He smirked at me.

"Jack, they're arriving today," Gwen started. She was worried, I could tell even in the short amount of time I'd known her. "That alien voice thing said today and we're stuck in the back end of beyond."

"Yeah, but we're together," he replied, slapping the space between him and me for Gwen to sit in. "The old team, plus the new kid." Jack smiled over Gwen's head at me. "And if she's anything like her father, she'll be brilliant." I smiled, unsure whether to be sad that Dad wasn't there to help, or proud of him.

"Thanks, Captain." I replied.

"We're down, but not out, yeah? We've survived worse than this." Jack said. What could they possibly have done that's worse than being blown up, literally, from the inside?

"Besides, I don't know how much fighting you should do in your condition." Jack continued. We all turned and glared at him.

"What does that mean?" Rhys snapped.

"Christ, Jack!" Gwen whispered angrily.

"He knows you're pregnant?" Rhys said, and I could tell it wasn't a question, exactly. "You told him before me, didn't you?"

"Rhys, he happened to be there, and it happened really really fast-"

"Last to know, last to bloody know! Well thank you very much!" Rhys said, storming off. I would have made a comment about the swearing, but I decided that now was not the time.

"Don't be stupid, man! Hey, don't be…" Gwen started, standing up and following her husband, but not before hissing to Jack: "Couldn't you just keep it shut?" He smirked appreciatively.

"All together," Ianto muttered. "The old team." He stood up and wandered across the warehouse, leaving me alone with Jack on the sofa.

"You are impossible." I said to him.

"Yeah, I've been told that before," he chuckled. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm fine." I sighed.

"What is it with Time Lords and keeping everything hidden?" Jack said. "Come on, Jen."

"Don't, stop it," I snapped. "Stop calling me that."

"OK, sorry." He replied sarcastically. "Why?"

"Only my Dad calls me Jen," I said. "Not immortal humans from the 51st century."

"So he told you about me, huh?" Jack said.

"Course he did," I replied with a snort. "I asked. I could feel something."

"What do you feel?"

"You. You, Jack. You're just wrong." I said quietly.

"Can you feel it now?"

"All the time. It's how I found you in Cardiff after the TARDIS left. It's how I knew which cell you were in at that compound."

"Every time I see you, Jenny, you do something which makes you more and more like the Doctor." Jack said. I looked up at him.

"You really think I'm like Dad?"

"Of course," He grinned. "And I promise we will find him. He's probably looking for you right now."

"Well he's not doing a very good job of it, is he?" I said moodily.

"Come on, give him a break," Jack laughed. "His box isn't exactly the latest model."

"I just keep thinking about him, Jack," I mumbled, slouching into the cushions with my arms crossed. "He can't be on his own. He needs someone with him."

"I know."

"And everything I do here makes me think he's gonna disown me or something," I whispered. "I keep using guns. I'm being violent. I feel so guilty."

"Yeah, but you're doing it for the Earth. For the human race."

"But he does that all the time without any weapons." I argued. We both paused, Jack considering his answer.

"He's the Doctor." He said simply. I nodded a little. I could feel tears pushing their way to my eyes, but this time I held them off successfully, and just turned my head back to face straight ahead at the corrugated metal wall. Jack stood up with a light sigh and wandered off somewhere, and at that moment, I honestly couldn't have cared less. Everyone kept telling me I was like Dad, but I wasn't. I was violent. No, more than that… I was vicious and brutal. On Messaline, I had knocked out a soldier, kissed Cline to get out of the cell, called Martha Jones 'collateral damage'. I screamed in Jack's face, ordering him to take me to Dad with him, didn't stop him from being killed by the supreme Dalek, didn't help Dad or Donna against Davros. I let Rosita swing an axe to stop Dad from getting hurt. I used a cutlass against a Cyberman, I didn't help the human Miss Hartigan. I left the TARDIS and was blaming Dad for abandoning me. I shot a man in the foot. I let Gwen, pregnant, do the fighting for me… and all the while I'd been reaching for a weapon at the first signs of trouble. My ideas were conflicting: I didn't want to be a soldier or use guns and things, but I decided that I was no longer going to let Torchwood do the fighting alone. Dad would find a way to do both, but I wasn't like him. I was nowhere near as brave or bold or brilliant as that man, and I was not worthy of being his daughter. I wouldn't blame him if he did leave me on purpose.

I remained on the sofa for a further couple of hours, lost in my guilty thoughts and brewing over Dad. A layer of my consciousness noticed people walking in and out: Ianto on the phone, Gwen and Rhys returning, Jack sitting down and standing up next to me. I'd never stayed still for so long.

"Jenny, get over here!" I heard Jack summon from the middle of the warehouse. What for?

"To work out what equipment we have," he called. "You're a worthy part of Torchwood for now, come on!" That was the third time Jack had done something like that, getting in my head. The first time in Alice's kitchen, the second earlier when we were talking about Torchwood One. I made a mental note to ask him about that later. Sluggishly I got to my feet and with a groan, and shuffled over to the team. They were circled around a table with a pile of random stuff on it.

"You are acting like a child." Jack muttered to me when I reached them. I glared.

"I am a child," I retorted. "So, what have we got?" Jack reached over the stuff and started looking through.

"Guns, OK, and a penknife," He commentated. Well, I wasn't planning on using them anymore. "Laptop, now dead. Credit cards and a phone, which they can trace." None of that's any good, then, is it _Captain_? "Lemsip. Book of stamps, pair of contact lenses. And fifteen quid."

"Plus 25p," Gwen added, stuffing her hands in her pockets and pulling the coins out. "Jenny, got anything?" I sighed, and reluctantly pulled out whatever I had.

"Couple of shillings and a sixpence – Jackson Lake gave me them in 1851, souvenir, he said – few blades of applegrass from New Earth, photo of Dad and me with Frank Sinatra… thing of Bazoolium… a pen from that museum we went to a few days ago, and… a golf ball," I chucked everything on to the table and smiled sarcastically. "There. What else would we need to save the world?" Jack scowled at me.

_"Grow up, Jenny. Your Dad wouldn't act like that." _

"Get out of my head, Harkness." I snapped. Everyone glanced up at me, momentarily confused, and it was obvious why. Not only did they not hear Jack's comment, but I was being a child. Jack was one hundred percent right. I wouldn't make my Dad proud like that, and I decided right there and then that I was temporarily going to be a committed member of Torchwood. I could feel Jack rummaging around in my head still, and I looked at him. He knew what I'd just thought, and it showed in his newly content expression.

"Anyway," Gwen said, breaking the silent conversation between the two of us. "We've got some bloody alien thing turning up today."

"We've still got some of the Torchwood software, though," Ianto continued, as if nothing had happened. "We've lost the Hub, but the software still exists on the server. Trouble is we're going to need some more equipment, not to mention electricity."

"And how are we going to manage that, hidden away like criminals?" Rhys asked.

"Well, that's it!" Gwen grinned excitedly. "Brilliant!"

"What?"

"Criminals. Thieves. Us," She explained. "Well, they're treating us like criminals, let's be criminals. Listen, I trained with the police, I know every trick in the book! I've seen the lot." I beamed at Jack, realising where Gwen was going with this. "Come on, you lot. You're gonna learn some tricks!"

And with that, the newly reformed and ever determined Torchwood team left the temporary base and sneaked into the city. We split up, taking Gwen's tips with us, and got anything that we might possibly need as well as particular items that we were assigned: Jack and Ianto credit cards and cash, Gwen and Rhys laptops. I was allocated a car to steal after I put up my argument for that job, despite Ianto's comments that I was under the legal age and didn't have a license.

_"We're talking about stealing a car, Ianto," I said. "I don't think following the law around that will help if I get caught."_

_"Fair point." He replied._

To stop myself from feeling the guilt again, I kept repeating that it was in the Earth's best interests, and I was a member of Torchwood for now. Therefore, I would go by Torchwood's values, within reason. So, I wandered London's outer streets looking for available cars, pickpocketing a couple of wallets on the way. Luckily the TARDIS had given me clothes with Time Lord Science: my trouser and jacket pockets were bigger on the inside, so I could easily conceal whatever I took. I'd been in a couple of shops and grabbed a few pears, some coffee for Ianto and the rest of the team amongst other things, when I strolled past a man wearing a suit. He was on his phone and had just left his silver car unattended by the kerb with the keys still in the ignition. I glanced back at him as I passed; he was well-dressed and had a fancy phone, as well as his car being a convertible. Everything about him screamed expensive and rich, so I concluded that his car being borrowed wouldn't do him too big of an inconvenience. I continued walking casually. The street was fairly quiet. I was a few steps away from the car, and my mind was calculating when I needed to strike. Three more steps, two, one… now! I skipped and jumped over the car door with my hands on the window, landing comfortably in the driving seat. I turned the keys and slammed my foot down within a second, and the car sped away with the force of a Cyberman's metal grip. I heard the man shouting desperately behind me, but I left the scene too quickly to listen. I told myself that it was his own fault, he shouldn't have left his keys. In fact, he was lucky that I was the one to steal it; at least it would be put to good use with us, rather than some professional thief just out to get cash. I'd never driven a car before, but I somehow knew exactly what to do with the pedals and the gears. It was much simpler than the TARDIS console, which Dad was beginning to teach me how to use. I manoeuvred the car around London's backstreets, eventually arriving back at the warehouse about twenty minutes later. I miscalculated the amount to press down on the brake, though, and hit the bumper on the corrugated metal wall just a little. I hopped out, taking the keys with me, and took a quick look at the front. The metal around the number plate was slightly squashed, but the car was otherwise unharmed, and the wall was fine. I chuckled to myself, and walked into the warehouse, swinging the keys on my fingers.

"Hey guys, I'm home!" I called. The place was dark, but the whole team were already back, minus Ianto, and had set up several laptops.

"What was that bang, just a second ago?" Rhys asked me.

"Well… I may or may not have accidently hit the wall outside with the front of the car," I paused. "But that was the only mistake I made! Not bad for a five week old Time Lady who's only ever flown a Messalinian pod and half a TARDIS before, eh?" I winked at Jack, who was typing hungrily on one of the laptops.

"Let there be light!" He exclaimed with a flourish of his hands, and as if by magic, the warehouse filled with a warm yellow glow. I cheered happily.

"Oh yes! Britain's most wanted!" Gwen laughed.

"Hey, how about that?" Rhys called. I looked over at him stood by the wall. He had spelt out some big letters in the dirt: HUB 2.

"Oh, that is cool!" I exclaimed.

"Guess that makes you an official member of the team, Rhys." Jack called.

"You can stick it, mate," Rhys replied, but it wasn't aggressive. "Get on those computers and get me home, yeah?"

"I see we've got a new car outside," a voice said from behind me. I turned around to see Ianto strolling in, wearing a brand new suit and carrying a dozen bags. "Nice, very smart."

"Thank you!" I replied.

"Where've you been? We thought you'd got arrested." Jack called to Ianto.

"Just buying essentials. Technology's one thing, but let's not forget the creature comforts," he said. "Coffee, obviously."

"Oh, I've got some coffee, too, and pears." I added.

"Got some doo da." Ianto continued, lifting a packet of toilet roll above his head.

"Thank god!" Gwen smiled.

"And, more importantly, I didn't know your exact sizes but I reckon I've got a good eye." Ianto said to everyone. He began throwing the remaining bags at each of us.

"Oh, brilliant, I am stinking!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Nice one!" I heard Rhys call. I ripped open my bag and pulled out a deep blue T-shirt, a similar colour to the one Jack was wearing earlier that I described as 'TARDIS blue', more black trousers, and a brand new pair of Converse: light cream, just like Dad's.

"Oh, Ianto Jones!" I shouted excitedly. "You are a star!"

"And for you, sir," he continued, passing the last bag to Jack. "Army surplus special."

"Oh, you are kidding me!" Jack exclaimed. He took the package from Ianto's hands and marched off with it outside. A few minutes later, we'd all changed. My new trousers didn't have Time Lord Science, but they were comfortable. The T-shirt was similar to my purple one, only a little longer… and the shoes were just awesome. I was sat on a chair, wiggling my foot around and admiring the new spotless dap, when I felt Jack's presence. I looked up to see him striding back inside; he walked through a shadow and stopped in a spot of light.

"I'm back." He was wearing his brand new army uniform, and he looked like the real Jack again. The Captain, the leader. When he was in the tracksuit bottoms it didn't feel quite the same, but now the team had slotted back into place. We all cheered and clapped in celebration, and that moment was probably the happiest I'd felt since being on the TARDIS.

"And we're in." Jack said about half an hour later. We were sat in front of the laptops, and the Captain was setting up the Torchwood software.

"Just like the old days." Ianto smiled, turning to one of the screens.

"I'll patch into the news channels, see what's happening." Gwen said, getting to work straight away. We had all sat ourselves by a monitor now, apart from Rhys, who had voluntarily taken up the position of coffee maker.

"Black, no sugar, yeah?" He said, passing Jack a mug.

"That's the one." Jack replied.

"No sign of anything," Gwen commented aloud. "Empty skies."

"Right, so tell me, Torchwood. Where do we start?" I asked.

"Run a check on that Clement MacDonald, see if there's any change, Ianto," Gwen instructed professionally. "And those names Lois said, Jenny: Captain Andrew Staines, was it Ellen Hunt? Michael something. All assassinated the same time they tried to kill Jack."

"On it," I replied, beginning to type the names into the search box. "Andrew Staines, Ellen Hunt, Michael Sanders… mean anything to you, Jack?"

"No, nothing."

"We need to get inside Whitehall," Gwen said. There was a pause when all I could hear was typing. "Have you got the I5 software, Ianto?"

"Yeah, it's still on the site, why?" He replied.

"Download it on to the laptop, 'cause these aren't just contact lenses," Gwen said with a cheeky grin. I turned away from the laptop to look at her. She was holding up a small white case. "These are Torchwood contact lenses."

"What do they do?" I wondered aloud.

"They're like a camera," Gwen explained. "A camera in someone's eyes."

"Who's going to wear them?" Ianto asked.

"Well, there's only one person still talking to us." Gwen said.

"Lois Habiba." I muttered.

Gwen had left the Hub.2 to find Lois. The rest of us were still scanning and searching for clues and answers on the laptops, Rhys cooking on the other side of the room.

"Frobisher's the key to this," Jack said. "He's just a civil servant, he's nothing. What makes him start authorising executions?" No one replied. I remained typing at my designated laptop, the one between Jack and Ianto, but I was thinking hard about an answer to the question.

"What did it feel like?" Ianto asked Jack quietly. He had stopped typing. "I mean, getting blown up?"

"Wasn't the best of days." Jack muttered. I was still staring at my monitor, but my focus had dropped a little to listen to Jack's honest replies.

"No, but… did you feel it? Or did everything just go black?" Ianto continued.

"I felt it." Jack said, stopping whatever he was doing to turn and look at the man as he answered.

"Shit." Ianto mumbled.

"Yeah."

"Do you ever think that one day your luck will run out? That you won't come back?" Ianto asked.

"I'm a fixed point in time and space," Jack sighed. "That's what the Doctor says."

"Yeah, he said you were an anomaly, like me." I added.

"An impossible thing," Jack smiled bitterly. "I think that means forever."

"So, one day, you'll see me die – of old age – and just keep going?" Ianto said.

"Yeah."

"We better make the most of it then." He said.

"Suppose." Jack replied. There was a hint of suggestion in his voice. They paused.

"Like, right now?" Ianto asked.

"I am right here, in between you both," I said, slightly alarmed. "Just reminding you."

"Ianto, the world could be ending." Jack said, ignoring me.

"The world's always ending," Ianto replied. "And I have missed that coat."

"Really? Am I invisible or something?" I continued.

"Rhys!" Jack called across the warehouse, ignoring me again. "Do you wanna take the car and go to those shops down by the Wharf? We need some discs for these things. Should take about twenty minutes?"

"Thirty minutes." Ianto muttered.

"Thirty!" Jack called instantly.

"Um, can I go with him?" I said. It was obvious the boys weren't going to take any notice at that moment, though.

"I'll go later, the beans are almost done." Rhys called back, stood by a small stove with a saucepan.

"The beans are almost done." Jack repeated, turning back to the laptops.

"Oh, what a shame." I giggled sarcastically.

"Bloody beans." Ianto murmured. He went back to typing at his laptop.

"Whoa, that's nice, look at that!" He said suddenly. Jack and me looked at his screen. "Face recognition software. And, arrested two hours ago in London. He wouldn't give his name, but that is Clement MacDonald." There was an image of a wrinkly and bedraggled grey man with a haunted look in his eyes on the monitor.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"That's the man from the hospital." Jack said.

"Yes, he is the man who was talking like the children, Jenny," Ianto explained. "He could be useful." He picked up a phone that someone had pickpocketed earlier. "Gwen?" We could only hear one side of the conversation:

"We've got a new mission for you. That Clem's turned up in Camden police station of all places, arrested for theft and minor affray. Could you get him out?"

"You were a policewoman."

"Fillet steak would be nice." I could tell the last couple of comments were sarcastic, and this must have ended the conversation quickly.

"So, Ianto, what's his story?" Jack asked once he had put the phone down.

"Well, according to Gwen, it was your classic alien abduction, back when he was a kid. 1965. He was living ten miles outside Arbroath, the Holly Tree Lodge, it was an orphanage," Ianto began. "I looked up the files, the kids were taken away in November 1965, the Lodge was closing down, they were being taken to a second care home called Harbour Heights in Plymouth. Except, that's where the records stopped, there's no trace of them arriving. I mean, it was the sixties, a lot of the paperwork's gone missing. But if what he's saying is true, maybe they never got there." During Ianto's explanation, Jack had stopped working and his face gained an extremely anxious expression. I stared at him, and tried to get into his head, like he'd got into mine. I couldn't feel anything from him, though. He was empty.

"Jen, show me those people." Jack barked.

"It's Jenny, and what people?"

"Andrew Staines, Ellen Hunt, Michael Sanders, the ones that were killed the same day as me." He specified.

"Why, do you think there's a connection?" Ianto asked him as I looked for the photos I'd found earlier.

"Show me!" Jack snapped. I loaded three images of two men and one woman, in their sixties or seventies.

"No, no, give me their history, show me them forty years ago." Jack ordered. I went back further into the twentieth century, and found three more pictures, these in black and white.

"Who are they, Jack? Did you know them?" I asked.

"I never knew their names." He said, almost in a trance. Suddenly he jumped up and grabbed his coat from the back of the chair.

"Who were they?" I asked loudly. He was running across the warehouse towards the door.

"Jack, tell us! Did you know them? Jack!" Ianto shouted after him, but he was already gone. We looked at each other helplessly.

"Oi! The beans are ready!" Rhys called.

A little while later, Jack and Gwen were still out. Ianto and me were sat at the laptops and Rhys was eating the now cold beans on the sofa.

"What's the deal with you and Jack?" I asked Ianto quietly. He paused.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what are you two? Boyfriends?"

"It's complicated." He said.

"How?"

"He's lived through the 19th and 20th centuries, was born in the 51st, and he's immortal." Ianto sighed, still examining the monitor in front of him.

"Yeah," I exhaled. "I know the feeling." He looked at me questioningly.

"My Dad's nine hundred years old. He's the last of his kind, and he's the one who killed them all. He's lost countless friends. He travels alone in a box that he stole, and he's changed his face nine times." I explained. Ianto nodded slowly.

"Poor man." He muttered. Suddenly a news feed flashed on the laptop screen behind Ianto: the children had started again.

"They're pointing at Thames House," Ianto read. "Come on!" Rhys followed us as we ran up the stairs of the warehouse. We sprinted higher and higher, up to the roof, where we stopped and looked out. We looked out towards the centre of the city, where the children were pointing, and where the aliens were watching. It was quiet. Then suddenly, an orange glow punched through the clouds in the distance, and shot downwards. It landed directly on Thames House, and disappeared. I looked back up to where it had emerged: there was a wide blue hole in the grey cloud.

"They're here." I said into the silence. There was a pause for a few seconds, where we just breathed heavily.

"Come on, it'll be on TV." Ianto said, and started walking back down the stairs. This time it wasn't a rush, and we walked down silently. This was the point where everything was going to kick off. The invaders had arrived, and from what Dad had told me, and from what I'd already seen of the human race, they would not simply crumble at their feet. They would fight back. We reached the warehouse room again, and headed straight for the laptops. Ianto pressed a few buttons, and a news channel appeared on a screen.

"The area around Thames House is being cordoned off while the Government has…" the newsreader said.

"It's all kicking off now," Ianto said. "Just when we need Jack."

Gwen came back to the Hub.2 with Clement MacDonald in tow. He looked totally bewildered the whole time Gwen introduced him to us as 'Clem', and had to be guided to the sofa and told to sit. We were taking a break from research at the laptops, apart from Ianto, who was stood around all four.

"There you go." Gwen said, passing Clem a mug of coffee to go with the hot dog Rhys had cooked him. He munched both down greedily.

"Save some for the rest of us, mate!" Rhys laughed.

"He's your husband?" Clem asked Gwen, pointing at Rhys.

"Yes, yes. My beloved." Gwen replied, sitting down between Clem and me.

"And who's that?" He continued, indicating me.

"This is Jenny," Gwen said. "She's working with us for a while."

"Hello, Clem." I smiled with a wave.

"Nice house, isn't it?" He said, looking up at the high ceiling.

"Well, we do our best," Rhys chuckled. "It's got shower facilities. Just stand under the skylight." Clem looked blank for a couple of seconds, then laughed heartily.

"I've stayed in worse," he commented, and looked across to Ianto. "And who's the queer?"

"Oi!" Ianto yelled angrily. Gwen, Rhys and me looked around awkwardly. I raised my eyebrows at them for a split second, then stared down at my super cool shoes to avoid Ianto's glare.

"It's not 1965 anymore." He said eventually, in a much calmer manner.

"He's queer, I can smell it." Clem muttered again. I stifled a nervous giggle, and chanced a look up at Rhys, who was grinning at Gwen awkwardly.

"Right, break over I think," I said, interrupting the uncomfortable silence. "Laptop?" We all stood up and walked over to Ianto. Gwen sat at the screen next to him, and Clem was lurking nervously somewhere behind us. We were still waiting for Lois to put the lenses in at Thames House; at that moment, the screen was grey.

"What do you think's in there?" Rhys wondered.

"God knows. That's why we need Lois." Gwen replied.

"No sign of her, lenses inactive." Ianto said, repeating the words on the screen.

"Well, can't be too long now." I added optimistically.

"Online. She's doing it!" Ianto said suddenly. I jumped back to work and walked across to the laptops.

"Oh, good girl!" Gwen exclaimed.

"She is a good one." I commented.

"I knew she would!" Rhys chuckled. On the monitor I could see Lois's face looking straight at us. She was stood in some kind of mint-coloured bathroom. Gwen started typing on the laptop: _"Thanks" _

"Oh god, don't do too much of that." The computerised voice said, following Lois's lips.

"Sorry." Gwen muttered.

"She can't hear you." Rhys said.

"They have lip reading software!" I realised aloud.

"Is that you, Gwen?" Lois said.

_"Yes it's me" _Gwen typed.

"Right then. Good luck." Lois sighed nervously. The screen moved and we could see her screwing the lense case back up and put it in her bag. Ianto reached across Gwen and typed something.

"Oh, don't do that. I hate smileys." Gwen moaned. We watched Lois leave the bathroom and walk through a corridor.

"Took me a while to get used to those things." Rhys said.

"What, you've used the lenses?" Ianto asked him, looking confused.

"Yeah, that's why Gwen had them."

"I just took them home for a bit of fun." Gwen explained casually.

"What sort of fun?" I grinned.

"You know," Rhys mumbled. "Fun."

"Yeah, well… been there, done that," Ianto commented. "It is fun."

"Yeah." Gwen and Rhys agreed in unison, both nodding. I snorted and attempted to be subtle. Lois was now stood behind two people in a small metal room. It looked like a lift.

"That's him, that's John Frobisher." Ianto said, pointing at the screen.

"Where?" I asked, leaning in closer. He put his finger next to a man stood with his back to Lois; he was thin and grey, and just by his stature, I could tell he was under a lot of stress.

"Bastard!" Rhys exclaimed angrily. "Fat lot of good that is, back of his head. How do we know if he's saying anything?"

"He's talking, his jaw is moving," I said. "But you're right, we can't tell what's coming out." We stayed silent, watching as Lois left the lift and stepped out into another corridor. There were guards dressed in black all around, and each of them was holding a gun. Lois walked into a room behind a few snooty-looking people, including Frobisher and the woman from the lift. Inside it was dark with a slight blue tint, and Lois looked at a huge glass tank on the right as she entered. It was filled with some kind of smoke, and all eyes in the room were focused on this object, including several cameras.

"What the hell is that?" Rhys asked.

"Some sort of tank." Gwen replied.

"But there's something inside the smoke." I added.

_"Get closer" _Gwen typed to Lois, who had stopped at the back of the room.

"Clem, come and see this," Gwen called back to the disturbed man. "Oh, come on. Don't be scared, it's miles away. What do you think?" Clem crept forwards slowly, and incredibly reluctantly.

"Anything you've seen before?" Gwen asked him once he had inched close enough.

"Can't smell it from here," he sniffed. "Is that what tried to take me?"

"Yeah, I think so," Gwen replied. "Jenny, what about you?"

"Nope, never come across smoke-dwelling aliens before," I said, shaking my head. "Hath, Cybermen, Ood… not this, though."

"He's got his back to us." Ianto commented, indicating Frobisher, who was stood up in the middle of the room.

"Yeah, we can see that!" Gwen snapped sarcastically. She started to type again.

_"Need his moth"_

"Need his moth?" I giggled.

"Shut up!" Gwen replied quickly.

_"Need his mouth" _Lois stepped around the back of the room gradually, and came to a stop at the side.

"That's it, come on, good girl!" Gwen murmured appreciatively.

"…reflects only the time span within which this summit has been declared…" the robotic voice started as it read Frobisher's side profile.

"You've got eyes," Clem stammered from behind me. "You've got eyes in the room."

"Software's not so good in profile." Ianto muttered.

"…and according to the rules of protocol as established…"

"It's not too bad." Gwen said.

"It's working." I added confidently.

"…1960 1968 established by the 1968…"

"Maybe not." I mumbled. Gwen typed again quickly.

"You hate smileys!" Rhys exclaimed, grinning at her.

"Shut up!" She said back instantly.

"…I must ask you to state whether these greetings are accepted," the computer Frobisher said. "Do you understand me?" There was silence on the screen, and we followed suit in the warehouse. "I repeat, according to the rules of protocol as established by the United Nations in the directives of-" Frobisher stopped suddenly. "Then I thank you on behalf of the United Kingdom."

"Did it speak?" Rhys asked, incredulous.

"It hasn't got a mouth, it's got bloody speakers." Gwen replied.

"It hasn't got a mouth!" Clem repeated, cowering away from the laptop.

"It might have a mouth," I snapped. "We just can't see it."

"…the Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Citizens and territories of Canada and Japan and the Hellenic Republic, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq…"

_"Can't hear alien"_ Gwen typed to Lois. She looked down at a pad of paper in her hands, and I saw her writing.

"It's bloody shorthand!" Rhys exclaimed.

"No, I can read it, it says 'yes'." Ianto said.

"This is a nightmare." Gwen sighed.

"It's fine." I corrected.

"…and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It might be easier if we take those names as read from now on, don't you?" Lois was watching the tank. Suddenly, dark pincer-like shapes appeared and hit the glass from the inside violently. A woman, covering her mouth, ran quickly out of the room.

"'What's it doing?'" Ianto said.

"What, is that what it said?" Rhys asked.

"No, that's Lois." I said.

_"God knows" _Gwen typed in reply to her question.

"Are you alright? I'm sorry, but I can't help being concerned, is there a problem?" Frobisher spoke.

"'I'm sorry but I can't help being concerned is there a problem?'" Ianto read out from Lois's scribbles.

"It's repeating?" I stated. An alarm went off in my head… Dad told me about a trip he went on to the planet Midnight. Something got into the car he was travelling in, and took over his body. He said that it repeated his words, then said them simultaneously, then before him. It took over his speech. The humans with him tried to throw him outside, into extonic radiation. He would have been killed.

"Do you want me to continue?" Frobisher asked the alien.

"'Yes'" Ianto read. I sighed with relief.

"Thank you," Frobisher continued. "And as a gift as welcome to this world, we've prepared a document summarising our culture and history. This document can be made available to you immediately, though its format remains undetermined. Said format remains of your choosing, though this does not constitute a request for information on or transfer of specific 456 technology."

"456?" I muttered.

"You know them?" Gwen turned and asked sharply.

"No," I replied. "But in the TARDIS, just before I left, Dad said he landed to scan a frequency of 456."

"Did he say why?" Ianto asked me.

"No, no. He just mentioned it. He said they were weird readings." I explained. Gwen and Ianto frowned at each other.

"I have been given a request for specific information," the computer voice, speaking as Frobisher, said. "It has been asked why the 456 chose Great Britain as its chosen point of embarkation."

"'We came here,'" Ianto read.

"Because?" Gwen asked sharply.

"That's all it said." He replied. There was a pause. "'You have no significance, you are middle men.'" He read.

"That's a lie, 'cause it's been here before, that's why it's here now," Gwen said. "Why? Why is it lying?"

"It's Frobisher." I said.

"He's got that thing to lie," Ianto added. "They're on the same side. Whatever happened in the past, they're hiding it."

"'We have a request.'" Ianto read.

"By all means." Frobisher replied.

"'We want a gift.'"

"Of course. But what nature of gift exactly?"

"'A gift.'"

"Gladly, but what gift do you want?"

"'We want your children, we will take your children.'" Ianto read.

"What the hell for?" Rhys cried.

"I'm sorry, I think that there might be a problem with the translation." Frobisher stammered. I felt Jack's presence outside.

"Oh, Jack's back," I told everyone. "Good timing, he's missed pretty much everything."

"They want to take them, like they did before! Like the man did," I heard Clem splutter behind me. "He's coming back, he's coming back."

"Not now Clem, just wait." Gwen said.

"He's coming he's coming he's coming he's coming he's coming…" Clem repeated in a whisper, over and over again. I turned and stared at him. Jack was coming.

"By children, you mean…" I heard the computer voice say.

"'Your descendants. The offspring of the human race.'" Ianto read as the 456.

"How many?" Frobisher asked.

"'Ten percent'," Ianto read. "'We want ten percent. We want ten percent of the children of this world.'"

"What?" I heard Gwen exclaim, just as the Captain strode through the door. He stopped a couple of steps in.

"He hasn't changed. He's the same, he's the same, he's the same. All those years. How can he be the same?" Clem mumbled quickly, stumbling over his words and letting out small cries.

"Jack?" I called. "What's he talking about?" The rest of the team had joined us in front of Jack.

"Clement MacDonald. Just another name," Jack said with no expression. "It was easier if you didn't know the names."

"You were there? In 1965?" Gwen asked him, stood in front of Clem.

"He was the man!" Clem exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Jack.

"No, no, this is what he does, you see? He fights them," Gwen explained to Clem. "He fights aliens, isn't that right, Jack?"

"No." Jack replied strongly. I stared at him, and desperately tried to get inside his head again, figure out what he was thinking. Still, there was nothing. Empty.

"Then what were you doing there?" Gwen asked suspiciously.

"I gave them the kids," Jack said, completely vacant. "In 1965, I gave them twelve children."

"What for?" Gwen asked him. He tilted his head slightly, sending chills through my hearts.

"As a gift."

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Hello! This chapter took a bit longer to write simply because the episode contains a lot of speech to sift through and make more exciting in writing form… I hope it's better for the extra time I took on it though :) 1000 views! Thank you so much to everyone who took a glance at this story, and especially those who have followed and favourited .. Review! xx**


	9. Day Four

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: A while since the last update, I know... Explanation: a couple of days before I went on holiday, halfway through writing this chapter, my laptop broke. So I had to wait till I got back, then I had a busy weekend, so couldn't get a new one until this week.. but it's here now, and the chapter's got one of the most remembered and heartbreaking scenes from this Torchwood series in it. Quicker updates now, promise! Read & Review please :) xx **

_Previously…_

_"I gave them the kids," Jack said, completely vacant. "In 1965, I gave them twelve children."_

_"What for?" Gwen asked him. He tilted his head slightly, sending chills through my hearts._

_"As a gift."_

"You just handed them over and hoped for the best?" Gwen asked. Her voice was high and light. Like me, she was trying to process this new information about Captain Jack Harkness. Clem was cowering behind her, letting out quiet wails every so often. The rest of us were silent, staring disbelievingly at the man stood in front of us. I couldn't understand what Jack just said… he would have been in 1965, yes, because Dad said he'd lived through centuries waiting to run into him. But it was Jack, the man I watched play with his grandson happily in his daughter's garden. A man couldn't do that, surely, if he'd given twelve kids away to some unknown fate. Clem was whispering something repetitively, but I was thinking too hard to notice what he was saying. Jack had no expression whatsoever: no guilt, no remorse, no pain. Not even pride or evil joy. Just nothing.

"You are in every nightmare I've ever had." Clem spluttered breathily.

"I'm sorry," Jack started, and a little conscience emerged as he focused on Clem. "I'm really sorry. I-" He was interrupted as Clem surged forwards and grabbed the gun from Gwen's pocket. I reached for his arm quickly, but he had already pulled the trigger. Time slowed down as the bullet burst from the gun and flew through the air, aiming right towards Jack. The tiny metal lump hit him in the chest and broke through his shirt and his skin. He fell backwards gracefully, as after all, he must have been an expert at dying. Ianto darted forwards and caught Jack before he touched the ground, but he was already dead. Ianto held his head, preparing for his return. I turned back to Clem, who had jerked his arm out of my grasp and moved away from us. He still had the gun in his hand.

"OK, Clem, so…" Gwen started, her arms raised towards him in half surrender and half panic. He brandished the revolver around manically.

"Stay away!" He yelled.

"Give me the gun, Clem. Come on." Gwen pleaded quietly.

"You're on his side!" The man continued desperately.

"Clem, give it to us." I said carefully, holding my hand out.

"And he's on their side," He said, pointing at Jack's body. "You're all involved!"

"Gwen, get away from him, he's dangerous!" Rhys hissed fearfully.

"I'm not dangerous!" Clem wailed, waving the gun around even more.

"We know!" Gwen exclaimed. "We know you're not. We know that."

"But that's a lie! Isn't it, isn't it?" Clem cried. "We all know. I killed a man! I am dangerous." There was a pause.

"Can I take that?" Gwen asked quietly, reaching her palm out for the gun. Clem shuffled forwards reluctantly. I held my breath: He was still pointing the gun forwards, and Gwen was moving gradually closer. Eventually, her fingers touched the metal, and she quickly grabbed it from Clem's weak grip. She passed it backwards to me straightaway, and I in turn passed it to Rhys.

"Do something with that." I muttered. Gwen had pulled Clem into a comforting hug, but he was staring frenziedly past her at Jack.

"But it wasn't my fault," he stammered. "There is something up there. They want children. That man held my hand and took me to them." Suddenly, I heard Jack gasp loudly. I span around to see him shoot upwards and grab Ianto's arms in panic, and his breathing was heavy.

"This is normal, this is what he does," Gwen said as ordinarily as possible to Clem. "Ianto knew it was going to be OK."

"No!" I heard Clem whine in distress, and then his staggering footsteps rushing away fast. Gwen instantly followed, calling after him. I walked towards Ianto and Jack slowly, who were still on the floor.

"You OK?" I asked Jack. He grunted painfully in return.

"Come on, up you get." I said, and helped Ianto lift Jack to his feet.

"Thank you, I'm OK now," He sighed once he had stretched his arms out. "I'm used to this." I glared up at his face. Now that he was back alive and well, I felt disappointment in him. He looked into my eyes, and I could feel him inside my head again, but he evidently had no words. I shook my head and walked away, back to the laptops. Ianto followed me there, and we sat side by side for a few seconds, silently contemplating conversation starters. I felt Jack walk over to us, and he too sat down.

"I can't believe you didn't mention this before." Ianto muttered to him.

"They didn't speak through kids back then," he started. "I didn't recognise the signs at first."

"That's not what he meant." I snapped. Rhys walked over to us.

"They're coming back." I looked past him and saw Gwen walking back, her arm around a slightly quivering Clem. He watched Jack with terror the whole time.

"The man who sent me and my friends to die, can't die himself." He said. I turned and looked at Jack, an expression of agreement, I hoped, clear on my face. He opened and closed his mouth several times in attempts to reply. After half a minute, he gave up and changed the subject.

"There was a strain of Indonesian flu," he started. "The 456 told us it was going to mutate so that 25 million people would be killed. They offered us an anti-virus in exchange for the children."

"Aliens lie, Jack," I replied hard. "You should know that from travelling with Dad."

"The human research supported their claims." He explained calmly.

"So it was a protection, right?" Gwen said. "You knew they'd be back."

"I knew it was a possibility." He replied quietly.

"But you still gave them the payoff?" I asked him sarcastically.

"We had no choice."

"Why us?" Clem asked suddenly. Jack blinked.

"You wouldn't be missed." He sighed. There was another uncomfortable pause.

"I can see that." Clem muttered.

"All of this time, the one consolation I had was that the deal seemed to work." Jack said.

"It worked for forty four years," Rhys said, surprisingly backing up the Captain, as Gwen shook her head. "That's not bad for breathing space."

"Why was I left behind? What's wrong with me?" Clem asked weakly.

"We know that they only want pre-pubescent kids," Gwen pondered. "Maybe it's got something to do with that."

"On the cusp of puberty: not quite adult, not quite child." I added.

"Saved by your hormones." Rhys smiled down at Clem. The laptop behind Ianto started making noises, and I looked at the screen to see Lois still persevering in that room.

"Is this still recording, Ianto?" Gwen asked. "I need every second of this."

"Yeah." He replied.

"Hello again," the computer's voice started speaking as Frobisher. "Before we consider your request, I've been asked for a point of clarification. Before we even discuss your… your request, we need to know exactly what it is you intend to do with the children."

"'Somebody is watching, some remnant.'" Ianto read from Lois's notepad.

"It knows I'm here!" Clem exclaimed with horror. "It knows!"

"'Somebody is watching.'" Ianto continued.

"I told you, it knows!" Clem said, recoiling away behind Gwen. "Turn it off!"

"It's talking about the other camera, it doesn't know about us." Gwen shushed him.

"The Prime Minister, the leader of this country, of the United Kingdom, is watching through this camera here," Frobisher continued. "And he needs to know what would happen to our children if we were to hand them over to you."

"'It is off the record.'" Frobisher didn't reply immediately. He walked closer to the tank, and we watched in silence.

"Yes." He said slowly.

"'Come in.'" Ianto read.

"In there?" Frobisher asked, slightly shocked.

"'With the camera, come in.'" Ianto read.

"It's hiding something!" Clem exclaimed. We all stayed quiet, watching the monitor intently. Lois was watching a group of people on the other side of the room. A man was climbing into an orange suit, similar to Dad's that he said he got from an impossible planet, and several people were helping him. They were too far away to hear what they were saying, but I assumed it would have been words of encouragement. The man was handed a camera, and he entered the tank slowly. Lois moved to watch the screen showing the cameraman's images live from inside the smoky tank. The air was grey and thick, and there wasn't much that could be made out yet. It looked like walking through a cloud, which was something that Dad promised we would do soon. Every so often the image became pixelated, but it didn't a lot of difference to the grey-blue wash on screen. This fog was the only thing to see for several seconds, but suddenly a figure came into view. It wasn't very clear amongst the grey, however I could make out three heads and some sort of green goo contrasting with the muted colours of the air.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Some form of Raxacoricofallapatorian maybe? The mucus suggests that, but not sure about the gas… and the three heads…"

"Is that what it is?" Gwen asked.

"No," Jack replied. "Similar, but they're not from Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Just something Dad might say," I shrugged. "Who are they, then?"

"I don't know." Jack muttered, eyes focused on the screen. We remained silent, transfixed on the monitor. The camera was examining the alien closely, with a little nervous shaking from the cameraman, for around a minute. Then, the focus slipped away from one of the heads. It moved down, and came to a stop on another smaller figure sat just behind the secreting alien.

"No, no, no, no!" Clem sobbed. My breath was caught in my throat as I realised what the pitiful creature was.

"A human child." I muttered.

"It's all of the kids from 1965." Gwen added. I heard Ianto sniffle slightly, and he turned away from the laptops.

"He's still just a child." Jack mumbled guiltily, and it was then that I remembered whose fault it was. Jack stood up heavily and took a few steps away from the rest of us, and I hoped it was because he felt responsible. Not that I wanted Jack to be hurting, but that child's life had been altered in an irreversible way, partly, because of him.

"Do you think he knows?" Rhys asked quietly. "Is he conscious?" The face of the child appeared on the screen; it was dark and drained, its eyes large and blue and blind, and a mask was covering its mouth. Its skin was grimy and bald.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." I sighed for those innocent kids. The picture on the screen started blurring slightly.

"What's happening?" Clem spluttered, halfway through a sob.

"It's Lois," Gwen replied quietly. "She's crying." There was a pause, then suddenly the 456 blew up against their glass walls, banging and throwing their mucus around. The goo hit the camera lens, which mutated the image for a couple of seconds, before the whole thing shook and span. Lois's eyes flashed up and down from her monitor, causing ours to flick between pixelated fog and people rushing around in front of the glass tank. I saw the cameraman stumble out of the door and immediately scramble out of his suit, a couple of people carefully helping him. Frobisher was stood still in front of the glass, and I noticed his jaw move. The image flickered down to Lois's notepad as she wrote.

"'We do not harm the children. They feel no pain. They live long beyond their years.'" Ianto read. I felt numb, and I couldn't do anything but continue to stare at the screen. I couldn't process what the 456 said, how they justified it. I just wanted Dad there to explain everything and take control in his brilliant way.

"Well, that's OK then." Gwen muttered sarcastically, and I could hear her anger bubbling underneath the words.

"But we still don't know," Jack said. "What does it do with them? What does it want them for?"

"Bit late to ask now." Rhys mumbled.

"'We have answered your question. You have one day to select and deliver the ten percent.'" Ianto read. Lois's hand was poised above her paper for a couple of seconds.

"'And if we refuse' – that's Frobisher." Ianto continued as Frobisher rather than the 456. There was another pause.

"'We will wipe out your entire species.'" He read, back in the voice of the 456. Anger overwhelmed me, and I subconsciously gritted my teeth. If Dad were here, he'd know exactly what to do. Why wasn't he? Where was he? What was he doing? I turned from the laptops and stormed away, not speaking to anyone, and threw myself on to a sofa. I hadn't left the warehouse in a day, and suddenly the walls were closing in, becoming stifling. I curled up into a ball, hiding my face in my arms. The world was out of control and I didn't know how to fix it, I couldn't just let it go to hell but Dad wasn't around to help. And I had no idea how to find that one Time Lord in a universe full of billions upon billions of planets and times where he could be. And in the meantime, Earth was about to hand over ten percent of its children to be connected to tubes and sit in the 456's poison gas for the rest of their extended lives.

"You're doing it again. Speak to me, Jack, where are you going?" I heard Ianto call suddenly.

"To call Frobisher," Jack replied angrily. "I can't call him from here, 'cause they'd be able to trace it. Is that OK?"

"You're the boss." Ianto said.

"And just so you know, I have a daughter called Alice and a grandson called Steven, and Frobisher took them hostage yesterday." Jack snapped back to him, and my head shot up as he marched out of the building. Alice and Steven taken hostage? Jack must have been feeling terrible, with that on top of the children. If Dad was trapped, and I was to blame, I would never get over the guilt. Never. I watched Ianto walk slowly over from a window and sit beside me.

"Did you know?" He muttered.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I met them before the bomb." Ianto didn't reply.

"Where's Jack gone?" Gwen asked us, walking from the laptops, Rhys and Clem behind her.

"Calling Frobisher," I replied. "And he's got a daughter and a grandson, both taken hostage yesterday, you may as well know too." Everyone stayed silent for several minutes, aside from a few whispers between Gwen and Rhys, and Clem's sobs every so often. Gwen sat back by the laptops eventually, announcing that she was "just going to keep an eye on everything". Ianto and me were still sat side by side on the sofa, but now I had rested my head on his shoulder, for his comfort more than mine. We had been in this position for ten minutes when Jack returned, stomping through the door like a crash of thunder. He threw his coat on a chair and stopped in front of us, not attempting to speak. He was in my head, though, and he thought a few words.

_"They won't release them until I hand myself over."_

I looked into his eyes and nodded sadly. He then stared down at his feet, hands in his pockets, and took a seat on the other side of Ianto. Why was he telling me? Why not Ianto or Gwen, his best friends? His team? Why did he trust me more than them?

"Cabinet office briefing, room A: Cobra. Where all the emergency planning takes place." Gwen called across from the screens, apparently reading from one.

"Gold Command meeting's about to start." Ianto said, getting to his feet and walking across to Gwen. I stood and waited for Jack to do the same, which he did slowly and heavily, before following Ianto.

"They'll sell us out, just like they did last time." Clem stuttered as we reached the rest of the team.

"I'm sorry to hear about your family, by the way," Gwen said to Jack. "We'll get them out."

"I know we will." Jack replied quietly. I squeezed his hand, because despite his actions, he didn't deserve that pain, and then focused on the laptop. Lois had walked into a room with wooden walls behind Frobisher, and had now taken a seat in a corner facing a long table. Around it were sat many important looking people, including Frobisher on one end.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's been decided that we're going to make the 456 an offer," A silver haired man sat along the centre said, and the I5 software repeated. "A realistic number, something we can manage, and then we see what happens."

"You mean we're going to haggle? What about the military option?" A woman sat next to him said.

"There's nothing to take action against. Evidently, the 456 must have some sort of base of operations in orbit, but our satellites are showing nothing," a man in uniform said. "Whatever's up there is beyond our technology."

"There's a target sat in Thames House." The woman argued. I quickly took a strong disliking to her.

"Taking that out would be a declaration of war." The man snapped.

"A war we can't win." A bald man agreed.

"That's why I've invited John to address Gold," the first man, who I assumed was the Prime Minister going by his important stance, said. "In terms of managing the figures, what could we offer and get away with?" Clem was muttering and whispering as the politicians spoke.

"Oh my god, they're really going to do this!" Gwen exclaimed, clearly shocked.

"No they're not," I said to her. "We won't let them."

"Look, this won't just be Britain, will it?" The woman continued on screen.

"The idea is that every country makes a camoflaugible contribution." The Prime Minister replied.

"Can you pass me the FAS file please?" Frobisher muttered to someone, leaning across Lois's eye line.

"That's it, now you're talking!" Rhys said.

"Right, well, for a start, there are twenty one children in Oakenton right now," Frobisher continued, addressing the whole room. "Twenty one units, unaccompanied asylum seekers awaiting deportation."

"What's FAS?" I asked.

"Failed Asylum Seekers," Gwen answered. "Orphans in '65, asylum seekers today. There's progress for you."

"And no one would miss them," The bald man said, then paused. "We need more. Can you bump the numbers up to sixty?"

"I think so," Frobisher replied with a stammer. "We can have them in from Oakenton first thing tomorrow."

"Thank you, John," the Prime Minister said. "Now go back to Thames House and consult with the 456. Make them an offer of sixty units, and no more." Frobisher stood, nodded, and left the room.

"Let's just hope sixty is enough." Rhys commented.

"No, that's sixty too many," I snapped back. "The 456 can't just take your kids. Even if they won't be missed."

"They're not getting any." Ianto agreed.

"Exactly," I said. "Not one child, not while I'm alive. And I'm Time Lord, so that's a hell of a long time."

_"I wish your Dad were here to see you, Jenny. He would be incredibly proud right now." _Jack said in my head.

"Me too, Captain." I replied aloud, not turning around. I saw Rhys frown at me in confusion out of the corner of my eye, but I ignored it. Lois was still in the wooden room, and there was a small screen on the opposite side showing the 456's glass tank. We stayed silent for a while, a little disgusted at the 'offer' that was about to be made and anxious about the 456's reply. Finally, I squinted to see Frobisher walk into the room at Thames House on the tiny screen. He was there for a couple of minutes, and then left quickly.

"Not too explosive?" Gwen said uncertainly. We all looked at each other with apprehension, when Clem suddenly started chanting like the children.

"Three, two, five, zero, zero, zero." He repeated, his eyes staring yet blank. Gwen turned to a laptop straight away and typed the number into the search box.

"Three, two, five, zero, zero, zero."

"Coordinates? Grid reference, maybe?" Rhys suggested.

"Does that mean they've accepted?" I asked, looking at Jack. He had a confused expression, so I gathered he didn't know.

"Three, two, five, zero, zero, zero." Several news reports popped up on the laptop screen, British ones with 325,000 written, French with 448,000, American with 2,340,000…

"Hold on," I said. "If every country is saying a different number, and the 456 want ten percent…" I looked at Gwen.

"No," she said.

"But that's all I can think of!" I replied. "Jack?"

"Seems likely." He sighed.

"Oh my god." Gwen muttered.

"3,250,000 is roughly the child population of Britain." Ianto confirmed.

"325,000 children," I mumbled. "Dear Rassilon!" Whilst we were talking, Frobisher, Lois and others had filed back into the room, and it looked like the Prime Minister was about to restart their discussions.

"With regrets, ladies and gentlemen, I have to tell you that we're now facing the worst-case scenario," he began. "And right now we don't have time for a discussion on ethics, I'm afraid handwringing will have to wait. All we can do at the moment is address a number of vital and practical questions."

"Namely, how do we select the ten percent?" The bald man continued. "Who would go? How would we transport them? And how could we sell it to the voters?"

"John?" The Prime Minister said, indicating Frobisher.

"'Well, the selection's not down to me.'" Ianto read from Lois's notes, as Frobisher, because he was now sat with his back to her eyes.

"Nevertheless, Practical solutions, please."

"'Once the selection has been made, then my department can arrange to bus all the children to the rendezvous points together, school by school. My staff are compiling various school databases,'" Ianto read. "'You just need to decide what criteria you'd use for selection, which is out of my hands. Over to you, sir.'" There was a pause.

"Anyone?" The robotic voice as the Prime Minister asked, looking around the table. "Might I remind you, the clock is ticking."

"It would have to be random." Another man said.

"Nobody would believe it was random, not when they're waiting at school gates for empty buses to return." The woman from earlier said.

"Well, if the system we use is demonstrably fair and reasonably random, at least we can defend ourselves."

"You're willing to risk your kids to make it look fair?" The woman asked.

"Then how else can we choose?"

"We could do it alphabetically?" The bald man suggested.

"Oh yes, thanks Mr Yates." The woman said.

"I didn't mean, I've got no kids, I wasn't trying to…" Mr Yates stuttered.

"Yes, no kids, and no consequences," She replied, turning to the Prime Minister. "And yours are already grown up."

"Let's keep this civil, Denise." The Prime Minister said.

"Oh yes! Let's discuss the loss of millions of innocent children, and let's be civilised about it."

"If you wouldn't mind, yes."

"Could we limit it to one loss per family? Second born child?"

"'That would take more time, more organisation: time we don't have.'" Ianto read.

"So, it would have to be one school at a time."

"Look, I'm going to say what everyone else is thinking," the woman said. "If this lottery takes place, my kids aren't in it."

"I'm sure the families of Gold Command will be exempted anyway." The Prime Minister confirmed.

"That bastard, isn't it." Clem spluttered.

"Our children get protection." The uniformed man said.

"Of course they bloody do." Gwen said angrily.

"So, we could have a show of hands," the man continued around the table. "I hate to be crass, but under these circumstances…"

"Well, who votes? Those with kids, or those with no interest to declare?"

"No one votes. It's down to me to make an executive decision." The Prime Minister said.

"Do you need some time?" Mr Yates asked him.

"Nope. Whatever happens, the children and grandchildren of everyone around this table will be exempt." The Prime Minister continued. There was a pause.

"What about nieces and nephews?" Denise asked.

"Don't push your luck." He snapped.

"You seriously expect me to look my brother in the eye-"

"We need to limit the number of people-"

"-to look him in the eye, and what, just give him a condolence card?"

"That's the responsibility of government, Denise."

"No, the first responsibility is to protect the best interests of the company, right? Then let's say it. In a national emergency, a country must plan for the future, and must discriminate between those who are vital to continued stability and those who are not. And now that we've established that our kids are exempt, the whole principle of random selection is dead in the water anyway-"

"Only so far as-"

"-Let me finish. Now look, on the one hand, you've got the schools, and I don't just mean those producing graduates. I mean the pupils that will go on to staff our hospitals, our offices, our factories: the workforce of the future. We need them. Accepted, yes? So, set against that, you've got the failing schools, full of the less able, the less socially useful. Those destined to spend a lifetime on benefits, occupying places on the dole queue, and frankly, prisons. Now look, should we treat them equally? God knows we've tried and we've failed, and now the time comes to choose. And if we can't identify the lowest achieving ten percent of this country's children, then what are the school league tables for?" There was silence around the room.

"Anyone want to speak against that?" The Prime Minister said. The politicians looked awkward, not making eye contact with anybody. "Then there we have it. John, you have your criteria. We've selected the ten percent."

"We've got enough evidence recorded here to destroy every person in that room!" Gwen exclaimed.

"And we can use it to force our way into Thames House, finally get face to face with this thing." Jack added.

"And get Alice and Steven released." I said, smiling at Jack hopefully. He sighed deeply, and began giving out orders. I was told to stay in the warehouse with Gwen.

"Right, everyone know what they're doing?" He said once he'd finished talking.

"Yes, I'm going with you and Ianto." I replied boldly.

"What if we can't get Lois to agree to this, Jack?" Gwen asked, distracting Jack's attention from me.

"She hasn't let us down yet," he replied. "Rhys, you ready?" He was quickly loading guns on the table with Ianto, and apparently hadn't heard me (or just ignored it).

"Let's go stand up to them." Jack said as he turned to Ianto, all ready to go.

"Yes, sir." Ianto replied.

"Did you hear me?" I said to them, raising my voice. They paused.

"You're staying here." Jack said.

"I'm going with you." I argued.

"It's too dangerous," he started. "Your Dad-"

"My Dad wouldn't want me there?" I interrupted. "Well, he left me here and hasn't come back yet. I think he trusts me to keep safe."

"They don't know you're here."

"So? I can help you."

"Gwen needs you here."

"Gwen's fine, she knows what she's doing," I paused, and lowered my voice. "Come on, Jack. Let me do something." He sighed.

"OK." I grinned and picked up a gun, putting it in my jacket excitedly.

"Right then," I smiled at the pair. "Allons-y, boys!"

We were in the silver car that I'd borrowed earlier. Although it only had two seats, we'd managed to fit in without any words. Jack was driving, and Ianto was sat in the passenger seat, me half on his lap, and half on the rest of the chair. Jack turned a corner, and we came to a long, busy queue of traffic.

"Oh, brilliant!" I exclaimed with frustration.

"That's London for you." Ianto replied.

"Right then, come on boys." I said, jumping off of Ianto and out of the car. They followed me, and we started walking the rest of the way to Thames House. Ianto pulled out his phone and called someone, but I couldn't hear him over the loud traffic. We continued on, determined and confident.

"What surname should I use for you?" Jack suddenly asked me.

"Dad calls me Annie Smith." I told him. Behind me, once we'd reached Thames House, Ianto started talking to Gwen on the phone.

"OK, Gwen, we're here." He said simply. We went up a few steps and straight through the long glass doors, past the security guards, who had drawn their weapons. We all raised our own guns above our heads in almost surrender.

"Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Annie Smith. We're Torchwood." Jack announced as we reached the main desk. We all slammed our weapons down on the table, and made our way up the stairs, and eventually into a lift. I hit the floor thirteen button, and we began ascending to the 456 tank. In around half a minute, the metal doors opened to reveal several guards and an aging man in a lab coat.

"I want to feed the live TV pictures directly to this number, can you do that?" Jack asked the man as we marched down the corridor.

"I can do that." He replied.

We entered the room. It was still dark and slightly blue, but this time it was empty, bar a few chairs scattered at the back. The 456 were alone in their cold glass tank, wandering through their evil mix of smoky gas. We stopped directly in front of it.

"I'm Captain Jack Harkness," Jack started loudly. "I've dealt with you lot before. I'm here to explain why this time, you're not getting what you want."

"You yielded in the past." A slow, deep voice spoke from the speakers.

"And don't I know it," Jack continued. "I was there, in 1965. I was part of that trade, and that's why I'm never going to let it happen again."

"Explain." The 456 demanded.

"There's a saying here on Earth. A very old, very wise friend of mine taught me it: an injury to one is an injury to all. And when people act according to that philosophy, the human race is the finest species in the universe." Jack said proudly, and my opinion of him swiftly improved.

"Never mind the philosophy," Ianto added. "What he's saying is you are not getting one solitary, single child. The deal is off."

"I like the philosophy." Jack muttered.

"I gathered." Ianto replied.

"You yielded in the past. You will do so again." The 456 said.

"In the past, the numbers were so small they could be kept secret, but this time that is not going to happen," Jack said. "Because we've recorded everything. All the negotiations, everything the politicians said. Everything that happened in this room, and those tapes will be released to the public," He paused dramatically. "Unless you leave this planet for good."

"You yielded in the past. You will do so again." The 456 repeated, and if the voice wasn't so expressionless and bored, I would have detected desperation in it.

"When people find out the truth, you will have over six billion angry human beings taking up arms to fight you," I replied strongly. "And like Jack said, the human race is the finest species in the universe when they come together and fight for their planet. They've done it before, and they will do it again. You'd better watch out."

"That might be a fight you think you can win, but at the end of it, the human race in defence of its children will fight to the death," Jack continued. "And if we have to lead them into battle, we will."

"You've got enough information on this planet. Check your records," Ianto ordered. "His name is Captain Jack Harkness, and hers is Jenny. Go back through the years and see what you're facing."

"And while you're at it, look up the Doctor," I added. "He will defend the people of the Earth until the end of everything, and there isn't a species in the universe that doesn't cower at his name. He is my father, and if we can't stop you, he will."

"This is fascinating, isn't it?" The 456 said with evil glee. "The human infant mortality rate is 29,158 deaths per day. Every three seconds, a child dies. The human response is to accept and adapt."

"We're adapting now," Jack replied angrily. "And we're making this a war."

"Then the fight begins." The 456 said lightly. We paused and looked at each other.

"We're waiting for your reply." I said.

"Action has been taken." The 456 said, just as I heard alarms start blaring throughout the building. Flashes of red light blasted down the corridor next to the room.

"What have you done?" Jack yelled.

"You wanted a demonstration of war," the 456 started. "A virus has been released. It will kill everyone in the building." We looked helplessly at each other. What do we do now?

"Jenny, you'll last longer than us, right?" Jack asked me hurriedly.

"Yeah, I should," I stuttered back. "Probably."

"Go downstairs, get help," he ordered. "Tell them what to do, but don't let the air out!"

"OK!" I yelled as I ran out of the door, and down the corridor. The guards from earlier were stood there, in a blind daze.

"The air's poison! Call someone! Shut down the air conditioning, block every air vent! Get gas masks, hazard suits, oxygen cylinders, anything!" I bellowed, sprinting past them and down the stairs. I could already hear people screaming, and I met them rushing down towards the main doors. Some were collapsing midway, dropping like flies. I held my breath once I'd reached the floor, but I'd already sucked in the air, and I could feel it plaguing my lungs and surging through my veins like a stampeding army. The humans were banging powerlessly on the glass doors, becoming weaker and weaker as the virus spread through their bodies. More were falling every second.

"You can't get out! The building's in shutdown, all the doors are locked! We can't let the air get outside!" I shrieked at them, but nobody was listening. "You need to find gas masks, oxygen! There must be something around! It's the only way any of you will live!" Still, they weren't listening, and I couldn't blame them. They were either dying or about to die, and thinking rationally was impossible in such a state of panic. The lack of oxygen to the brain wouldn't help, either. It was hopeless, I couldn't do anything to help them. I didn't know where these things were, the humans who worked in Thames House did, and they were dissolving to the ground. Only a few were left, and those were coughing breathlessly, their strength diminishing rapidly. The poison was forcing its way around my body still, and it was just reaching my hands and feet. I had to make sure Jack and Ianto were OK, so I ran back upstairs. There were bodies everywhere, and as I turned into the corridor where the 456 room was, I started to stagger. The virus was close to my hearts, and I didn't know what would happen when it hit. This was an unknown alien infection, one that Time Lords might not be safe from, and even then I didn't know how much of a true Time Lord I was. I'd died once, but Dad wasn't sure whether I'd regenerated or not when I came back. I stumbled into the room, and saw Jack cradling Ianto on the floor.

"A thousand years' time you won't remember me." I heard Ianto sob in a whisper.

"Yes I will," Jack cried back quietly. "I promise, I will." Ianto gasped desperately.

"No." I spluttered, clinging to the door frame. No, not Ianto.

"Ianto, Ianto! Don't go," Jack wept over his body. "Don't leave me, please! Please, don't…"

"Jack," I coughed, faltering forwards and falling to my knees. He turned and looked at me, his eyes red and his skin freshly tear-stained.

"You will die. And tomorrow, your people will deliver the children." The 456 said with despicable smugness. I watched as Jack turned back to Ianto's lifeless body, still clutched in his arms, and placed a delicate last kiss on his lips. He raised his head again for a fraction of a moment, before falling himself, his arms landing around Ianto's torso. I coughed again, repeatedly, and stayed where I was. Tears of struggle were streaming from my eyes, and the poison was working through my hearts. The right was already silent, but the left was clinging on for the last few beats. My shoulders hit the ground as my arms gave in to my body, and all I could do was wait. I counted the beats getting slower. Five. It was nearly over. Four. My final thoughts were my Dad. Three. His huge grin, all the running. Two. The TARDIS. One. Next stop, anywhere…

My eyes blinked open. I was laid on my back under some sort of dark sheet, covering my entire body. It was stifling, but I didn't move. Ianto was dead. The 456 killed him. I… didn't know, I couldn't think. Ianto, dead? He couldn't be. But he was. I saw it happen. He took his last breath in Jack's arms, looking up into the face of the man he loved. A hero's death, but it shouldn't have happened. Ianto Jones should have died an old man, of natural causes, happy and loved his entire life, his family and friends beside him. Not like that, murdered by a hate-filled alien invading his home planet. Because that's what it was. Not just a killing, a murder. Suddenly, I felt a bubble of air rise up from my lungs and through my throat. I opened my mouth, and a golden mist spread out in front of me, glittering despite the lack of light. It was like a shimmering beacon of hope, a helpful lantern in the middle of the darkness. I slowly moved the sheet down from my face. I was staring up at a high ceiling which disappeared gradually in the dimness. I moved my head around, looking to the sides. There were more red blankets, like the one on me, across bodies. These ones, though, would be dead. Murdered by the 456. My newly beating hearts filled with sorrow, and another lump formed in my throat, but this one was not full of gold particles. It was me, trying to hold back tears, which I surprisingly managed to do more successfully than I had in the past couple of days. Suddenly, I heard a voice from a few feet away.

"Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen." It said. There was a pause, then I heard a pair of boots clicking down towards me. The woman stopped next to my feet, and I looked up. It was Gwen, her face full of shock and simple tiredness, and I couldn't bring myself to speak to her. She knelt down between me and the body beside, labelled thirteen. I sat up slowly, keeping my eyes on hers, but we still didn't say a word. She broke the stare first, and reached to pull the cover off of the one behind me. Jack was laid underneath, eyes closed and lips slightly parted. He was still dead, but his skin was a normal colour and his body loose. Gwen smiled sadly down at him, and turned back to me. We looked at each other for a couple of seconds, then both gazed down at the sheet on the other side. I sighed painfully, and pulled the cloth back. Ianto's corpse laid still on the floor, his eyes closed like Jack's, only his would never open again. His skin was deathly white, and tinged grey in places. His suit looked as clean as ever, the tie perfectly in place. I stared down at him, my eyes filling with tears as I was now unable to stop them. I heard Jack wake behind me. He gave a small gasp, but nothing like his usual intake of breath when coming back from the dead. The knot in my stomach that I felt whenever Jack was close had returned. He didn't sit up for a few seconds, and I knew he was doing what I had when I woke: trying to come to terms with what had happened, but it wouldn't work. Gwen began to cry softly, and I carefully reached for her hand and moved closer. Both of us had tears falling soundlessly down our cheeks. Jack moved behind us, and I felt his arm suddenly hug my side. I could hear him sniffling, holding back a flood of tears. We sat together for a minute, all of us looking down at Ianto with agonising grief.

"There's nothing we can do." Gwen whispered.


	10. Day Five

The room that we were moved to was white and grey, tables scattered around with red chairs. There was a kitchen along one wall, and more bodies of the dead were laid under blankets and tarpaulin down the corridor opposite. We, Jack, Gwen and me, were sat at a table with Frobisher and his assistant, Bridget Spears. There was a long pause, which I filled by glaring at the pair, before anyone spoke.

"The threat still stands." Gwen started.

"Haven't we gone past that-" Frobisher sighed, before she interrupted.

"-My husband is still out there with everything you've done recorded on his laptop. One word from me and he will release that information to the public."

"What do you think Torchwood is now? Do you think you're still players?" Frobisher said harshly.

"We can try." Gwen snapped back just as hard.

"We're at a tipping point right now," he retorted. "Civilisation's about to fall into hell. You want to start that descent a little earlier, go ahead." We paused.

"He's right. Look what happened," Jack said to us quietly. I looked at him quickly, shocked, because Jack wouldn't normally give in. Even after everything. "Phone Rhys. Tell him we've lost." He directed at Gwen. She looked incredibly hurt and disappointed, pausing before walking away from the table and putting her phone to her ear. I moved my chair closer to Jack's.

"What about Lois?" I asked Frobisher. It was the first thing I'd said since waking up in the hall.

"I'm afraid Miss Habiba is in police custody charged with espionage." Frobisher replied.

"Then what about my daughter and her son?" Jack asked.

"They're free to go."

"Ianto Jones, he's got family back in South Wales, a sister. Has she been told?" Jack continued with a deep breath.

"We're not releasing any of the names, not yet." Frobisher said.

"Then let Gwen tell her," said Jack. Frobisher looked reluctant. "You said yourself, the world is going to hell any second. Before it does, give us a moment of grace. Just take Gwen home, please." We turned to look at the broken woman. She was curled up against the wall, phone in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I can't look at her anymore." Jack stammered.

An hour later, we had been taken outside where a helicopter was preparing to take Gwen and Rhys back to Cardiff. The blades were starting to spin loudly as I hugged the couple tight. I had a feeling that I wouldn't see them for a while.

"It's not over, Gwen," I whispered over her shoulder. "We won't let it happen." She smiled weakly at me, and I stepped back for Jack to say his goodbyes. He held her for a couple of seconds in silence, then pulled away with tears in his eyes. Gwen and Rhys climbed into the helicopter as Jack and me were put into handcuffs by a couple of soldiers. We didn't struggle or object. The helicopter took off fast and I saw Gwen looking down at us sadly as it continued to rise into the sky. Immediately afterwards, the soldiers marched us away towards a car and sat us on the back seats. The journey took ten minutes, and we were taken to a holding facility. Inside was a long stone corridor with several metal doors along both sides. A policeman unlocked two cells.

"Cell M-2, Annie Smith, 9:50a.m. Cell M-3, Captain Jack Harkness, 9:50a.m."

I was put into the first one and my handcuffs were removed. They shut the door behind me with a bang. The cell was small and dull, only one bench along a wall.

"Captain, is that you?" I heard a woman shout. "Captain Harkness, Annie, it's me, Lois! It's Lois!" I heard Jack's door clang shut.

"It's OK, Lois." I called back to her.

"Annie! What are they doing, what's happening out there?" She continued. I didn't reply. How would I explain?

"Can you hear me?" Lois called desperately. "What do we do? Captain?" I sank on to the bench. Jack was quiet, and I had a feeling he wouldn't reply to her, in which case, neither would I. Lois continued to shout for around fifteen more minutes, her voice getting quieter as time went on. I was lost in my thoughts again. How were we going to get out of this? How would we stop them handing over the children now? How would I find Dad from inside a cell? I would just have to hope he would find me. Would he be disappointed that I'd got myself arrested? No, we were both jailed on Messaline. He would understand. Hold on, maybe I could get out of here the same way I did on my birth planet? Then, I seduced Cline and put a gun on him to make him open the gates. But here, I didn't have a weapon or grating to poke my head through and get a guard's attention. I sighed, and my thoughts went back to Ianto. As well as him and all the other people killed in Thames House, Gwen told us that Clem had also been killed by the 456 in the warehouse.

"Visitor for Lois Habiba, cell M-14. Bridget Spears." I heard someone say outside. I jumped up and peered through the small circular window in the cell door. I spotted the back of the woman walking inside a cell opposite, Lois stood up. The door closed quickly behind them, and the guard stood protectively in front of it. I sat back down on my bench. I couldn't hear any conversation between Lois and Bridget, so there was no point trying, but I did keep an ear out for when the door opened again. It took around twenty minutes, and I heard Bridget saying goodbye to Lois before she walked out of the corridor.

The day was uneventful for the next couple of hours. I was sat cross-legged on the bench, examining my finger nails, when I heard a commotion outside.

"On the floor! On the floor!"

"Stay down!"

I leapt up to the door immediately. There were five soldiers, one bent over the guard pointing a gun in his face. The others were fiddling with the locks on mine and Jack's cell doors.

"What's happening?" I shouted. Two of the soldiers yanked my door open and pulled me out, whilst another two did the same to Jack next to me.

"What's going on?" He yelled. "Hey!"

"Jack!" I screamed.

"Move!" The soldiers said repeatedly. We were dragged unwillingly down the corridor, the soldiers and Lois shouting behind us. We were taken through several different halls, eventually joined by the grey man in the lab coat from Thames House. He was also being escorted by soldiers. We reached one lighter corridor afterwards, a woman following behind Jack. In front of the scientist, I could see Alice sat with Steven. They both stood up.

"Uncle Jack!" Steven called, running and hugging his grandfather's legs.

"Hey soldier!" Jack replied enthusiastically.

"We haven't got time." The woman, dressed all in black leather, said. I recognised her from somewhere.

"Listen, stay with your Mum, OK?" Jack said to Steven. The boy ran back to Alice, and we continued our march down the corridor. I smiled slightly at Alice as I passed. At the end of the hall, we were led into a large dark room. There was equipment everywhere, arranged in a kind of semi-circle, and we were stopped in the centre. Our handcuffs were removed.

"Oh, finally!" I chuckled, rubbing my wrists.

"This should be everything you need. And if it's not, we'll find it." The leather-clad woman said.

"For what?" Jack and me asked simultaneously.

"Wavelengths," she replied. "The 456 are named after a wavelength, and that's got to be the key to fighting back."

"You're wasting your time, there's nothing you can do," the scientist said behind me. "I've analysed those transmissions for forty years and never broke them." I was about to reply, when the woman drew her gun and shot at the man, who quickly fell to the floor and screamed in pain. She turned back to Jack.

"What do you think, Captain? She told me you were good," she said, indicating Alice. "Was she right?" Jack paused, turning to look at his daughter. They smiled at each other just a little.

"Let's get to work." Jack strode over to the equipment, throwing off his coat and getting started.

"Jenny, get me access to the Torchwood software." He ordered.

"Doing it now," I replied, rushing to his side and starting on the computers. "Log on to the servers, and…" A computerised sound rang out, indicating that we were in.

"Welcome back." Jack said.

"It still won't work. There's nothing on there, it's useless." The man said. He was slumped on a crate behind us, breathing heavily from the shot he'd received. I turned to him.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Dekker."

"Mr Dekker. We're time travellers. We've seen technology that you couldn't even dream of."

"And Torchwood has technology way beyond you already." Jack added.

"We hacked into Torchwood years ago, you idiots. There's nothing." Dekker retorted.

"Bring him over here." The woman shouted, and a couple of soldiers lifted Dekker away.

"Dad, come look at this." Alice called from another laptop, and Jack quickly stepped over to her. "It's some sort of pirate station. They're trying to get the story out to the public, but they're taking the kids." I continued working where I was, but listened to Alice. I groaned with disappointment; even though deep down I knew the politician's plans would take effect, something in me wished they wouldn't.

"Hey Jenny!" Jack called over to me, walking back. "If we cycle the wavelength back at them-"

"I know what you're trying to do," Dekker interrupted. "A constructive wave."

"That could work." I said.

"Don't you think people are already working on that all over the world?" He argued. "But it's never gonna work. The effect would be like shouting at the 456, that's all. Just shouting."

"Why did Clem die?" Jack asked himself, leaning against some equipment.

"It was the 456." I answered.

"But how did they do it? Why did they do it?"

"We've got the recording here." The woman said, opening a window on a laptop. It showed the 456's wavelengths.

"His mind must have synced to the 456 when he was a child." Jack continued.

"But they didn't need to kill him, he wasn't any threat, was he?" I added.

"Unless maybe that connection hurt them."

"This is the 456 at the moment of his death," the woman said, indicating the screen. "We've lifted the sound from the Thames House link." A horrible screeching sound played through the room. It was pained and pitiful, yet I didn't feel any sympathy.

"What's that sound, Mr Dekker?" I asked.

"I don't know. It's new."

"Exactly," I said, turning to Jack with a smile. "It's new." He grinned back hopefully.

"We don't have to analyse the wavelength, just copy it." Jack started.

"Turn it into a constructive wave." I added.

"But we've got no way of transmitting." Jack said, the hope faltering.

"Of course you have." Dekker said. I would have agreed with him ordinarily, but I knew what his arrogant smile meant.

"Shut up." Jack snapped after a second, not looking up.

"Same way as them." Dekker continued.

"We'll find something else." I barked.

"What does he mean?" The woman asked.

"Don't listen to him." Jack told her.

"Dekker, tell me." She said.

"The 456 used children to establish the resonance." He replied.

"Meaning what?"

"We need a child."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked, confused.

"Centre of the resonance," Dekker said, his smugness disgustingly overwhelming. "Hoo! That child's gonna fry." Everyone went silent as Dekker chuckled sickeningly. Jack was looking down, and Alice was staring at him frantically, her eyes wide. She had realised what they were thinking.

"No, Dad. No, tell them no." She said quietly.

"One child or millions." The woman urged Jack.

"There must be another way." I said.

"Dad, no. Dad, tell them no!" Alice continued, her voice becoming more erratic.

"We're running out of time."

"Dad, no! No, Dad!"

"Captain!"

"Jack." I muttered, leaning forwards to his eye line. He was staring emptily, the choice terrible yet inevitable. I didn't want it either. I didn't want anyone else to die, but time wasn't on our side. It had to be a quick, heart breaking decision. Either that, or someone had to come up with another solution immediately. I desperately sought for one in my head, but nothing was coming to mind. Everything was flawed. This awful plan was the only way. I continued looking into Jack's eyes as he avoided mine. Eventually he blinked, and nodded slightly, the grief already clear on his face. Alice ran as soon as Jack moved, towards the doors, screaming desperately for her son. The shrieks continued down the hall outside, and they were horrendous. There was a lump in my throat as we got to work, fiddling with the equipment, nobody looking at each other. In a couple of minutes, Steven was brought in and placed in the centre of the circle. I could hear Alice screaming outside still.

"What are we doing, Uncle Jack?" Steven asked innocently. He didn't reply.

"What's happening? What do you want me to do?" The boy continued. We carried on working, not looking at the child, trying not to listen to Alice's terrible cries. We'd almost completed the job, there was just one more button to press, then there was no going back. Jack's fingers were poised, shaking, above the key. His eyes were swimming with yet unshed tears. He was staring at his grandson, and I could tell he was desperate not to press down. I walked quietly over to him and gripped his other hand in support. I took a deep breath, just as Jack gained enough courage to hit the key. I watched as Steven's face lost his scared expression and went blank. His arms dropped and his mouth opened, a high-pitched scream emitting out. He stayed still for a few seconds, before his limbs began to twitch. It got more agitated and frantic, the jerking getting stronger and more violent. His convulsions became blurred, and blood started dripping from his nose. The shaking was getting fiercer every second. The blood was dark and thick, running down his face and shirt. Tears were trickling from my eyes, and I had to look away. I pressed my face against Jack's arm and squeezed his hand. Then, abruptly, it stopped. The screaming stopped, and I heard the child's body fall to the floor. I slowly looked back to the centre of the room. Steven was slumped down, blood dried underneath his nose and ears. His eyes were open but empty.

"Let her in." The woman muttered, and Alice was allowed into the room. She ran straight to her son and held him in her arms, tears and screams mixing with anguish.

"No, no, no, no, no!" She looked up at Jack, her eyes gushing.

"No! No! Somebody help him! Help him!" Jack was crying now, his face freshly tear-stained. Alice began rocking her dead child back and forth.

"No, please, no. Why? Why? Oh, please!" All I could do was stand with Jack, holding his hand whilst we watched his daughter cradle his grandson's body, letting our own tears fall freely. Eventually, soldiers filed into the room and removed the boy, leaving Alice alone on the floor. We were led out into the corridor and dropped down on to the bench. I was still gripping Jack's hand tightly. A little later, the double doors next to us opened and Alice stood there, no longer crying, but her eyes were puffy. She stopped walking when she spotted Jack, and her eyes became dark. I looked sadly at her. She glanced between the both of us, then stepped backwards through the doors again. Jack turned his head forwards, his face torn. I watched him intently. After a few seconds he sighed deeply and stood up, dropped my hand, and marched down the corridor and out of the building.

"Jack!" I called, following him out. I had to run to catch up with him. "Jack! Captain, talk to me!" He carried on walking, not speaking or even acknowledging me. I knew he wouldn't, and couldn't speak right now, and I didn't blame him. But I still needed someone's help. I needed Jack to just tell me one more thing. So, I did the only thing I could think of, and tried desperately to get inside his head.

_"Jack, I'm sorry." _He stopped walking abruptly.

_"It's no one's fault. He was a beautiful boy." _He gazed down at me.

_"Do whatever you need to do, Jack."_

_"Take a cab back to the Bay," _Jack started thinking. _"Find the Doctor. He's your family; don't ever let him go." _I nodded. Jack looked at me for a couple more seconds, then turned and wandered away into the city.

I got the driver to drop me outside the Millennium Centre on the Bay, just as Jack told me to. I hadn't been there since the bomb. Much of the area was cleared, but still a few bricks were lying around. I kicked one with my Converse, which were definitely less spotless now than when they were first given to me. A few feet away, people had laid flowers in a row against a wall: red and pink and yellow, white and purple wrappings. I walked slowly over to them and started reading the cards placed amongst the petals:

'My beautiful son'

'Dear Mum'

'Taken too soon'

'For all killed and affected by the Cardiff Bay bomb'

Obviously, Torchwood were not the only people around the Hub four days ago. And that made me angrier than ever at those few human beings who sat in those offices, around those tables, deciding the fate of strangers. My fingers curled into small fists as I struggled not to scream or cry, and my hearts started beating faster. I felt an overwhelming sense of disgust at the 'important' humans, and it was that moment when I realised that everyone starts special. Everyone has the potential to be brilliant, but some go wrong and lose their credibility. The Prime Minister and his associates were those people. They weren't special anymore. I squeezed my eyes shut and stepped backwards, treading on a piece of remaining rubble. My eyelids shot up and I looked down to steady myself. I gazed at the brick, not important to anyone. It was just a brick. But those bricks were the ones left over, the ones being kicked around by me and random people, kids playing. They were still being hurt after the trauma of the bomb. The bricks were Ianto. And they were Gwen and Rhys and Clem. Alice and her son. Rhiannon and Johnny, Mica and David, Ianto's family. Jack. All hurt in ways never to be truly fixed again, just like the Hub's debris, destined to be thrown around the Bay and eventually chucked into a dump somewhere.

I had stood thinking for some time. I started to notice people glancing strangely at me as they rushed past, going on with their normal daily lives. Not knowing that without the bravery of a grandfather and the sacrifice of an innocent child, they probably wouldn't be fine.

Suddenly I started walking. I didn't know exactly why or where I was going, but my legs were moving quickly and with intent. I turned abruptly into a shop after a couple of minutes and headed straight for the flower section, picking up the biggest and most ordered bunch. They were red and pale purple, wrapped in pure white paper. I paid with the last of the change I had from the pickpocketing, and headed straight back to the Bay.

A few minutes later I found myself carefully placing down my own addition to the pretty floral display. I put them directly in the centre, but they weren't showy or over the top. They were subtly beautiful. On the cream card, I wrote:

'You showed me the best of humanity. Forever in my hearts, and his. JS."

I stood up straight and admired all the colours and pretty petal shapes. I felt a smile creep on to my lips, and it lingered there as I remembered the good parts of the last five days I'd spent on Earth, and the new friends I had. I turned, walking away, not knowing where to go next. Jack said to keep searching for Dad, but now I was alone. Where to start? I paused in front of the big gold building to think. I remembered that this was where I was when it happened, and then an idea hit me. I ran around the corner to find the alley where the TARDIS landed before, but it wasn't there. It was empty, sitting dirtily as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened that week.

"Oh well," I sighed. "Retracing my steps now, then." I twisted reluctantly to walk back to the docks, when a familiar sound whirred behind me. I span to face the alley again. A strong breeze was picking up just in that spot, and a white light began to flash slowly a few feet above my head. A box was appearing from the air. It was getting louder. It was getting bluer. It was getting real. When the TARDIS had landed completely, and its beautiful straining sound stopped, I grinned. It was a huge one, spreading right across my face from ear to ear. The doors opened, and there right in front of me was my Dad: tall, skinny, pinstriped suit, spiky hair, old brown eyes, Converse on his feet.

"Jen, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he said, pulling me into his arms and hugging me tight. "I thought you were still in the wardrobe, so I took off and it wasn't till then I realised." I giggled over his shoulder, and my eyes began to well up.

"I thought you didn't want me anymore." I said, giving him a watery smile.

"Oh Jen, never," he grinned back. "It's only been a couple of minutes."

"A couple of minutes?" I laughed. "Try five days, Dad."

"Five days! What?" He exclaimed, looking down at me in shock. "I came back straightaway!"

"Maybe for you," I paused. "But why did the TARDIS land here and not then? Something to do with the 456 blocking it? They didn't seem too worried when I said you were my Dad."

"What?"

"I thought they were just a bit stupid, but I suppose to control all the children on Earth…"

"Jen, what have you been doing here?" Dad asked me with genuine concern in his eyes. I smiled weakly, and began the story of the children of Earth as we walked back into the TARDIS control room. I told him about being left in Cardiff and finding Jack, meeting his family, going back to the Hub. The bomb, going on the run with Gwen and Rhys, dropping the concrete cell into the quarry (I laughed at Dad's face when it dawned on him that Jack would have been naked). Becoming a member of Torchwood, fighting back, everything about Frobisher and Lois and Clem and the 456. Ianto. Steven. And Jack. I struggled with tears during parts of the retelling, but Dad held me and said that I could tell him anything. So I did, and he hugged me even tighter, especially as I described the poison air in Thames House that killed everyone, and that I thought it got me, too. His brow furrowed at this point.

"Did I die, Dad?" I asked him quietly.

"I think so," he replied. His voice sounded strained. "But you've got two hearts, you're Time Lord, so you came back. Not like a normal regeneration, though, because you look the same. Reborn maybe? Perhaps you regenerate back into yourself."

"What's the gold stuff?"

"Regeneration energy."

When I eventually reached the end of the story, Dad looked at me with a mixed expression. His eyes were big and sad, but he was also smiling timidly with apparent pride.

"Jenny," he started quietly. "Where do you want to go next?" I smiled across the room.

"Barcelona." I replied.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Another emotional chapter, I know.. back to Who territory next! Will be lighter for a while :) Read & Review! xx**


	11. Planet of the Dead

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Lots of speech in this one.. and a new character, invented by me just for Jenny :) Hope you like him... Read & Review! xx**

"Where could I take you to celebrate?" Dad asked me, leaping from button to lever on the TARDIS console. "Somewhere brilliant? I know, how about Apalapucia? That planet, Jen, is beautiful!"

"Can we go to Earth?" I replied just as excitedly. "It's my favourite!"

"Good choice! Mine too, love a human," he exclaimed, pulling the monitor around. "Tell you what, we'll save Apalapucia for a better birthday-"

"Three months old is a brilliant birthday, Dad!" I argued playfully.

"Of course it is, but a year is even better!" He retorted. "Anyway, where haven't we been on Earth yet? Oh! I know just the time!" He set to work on the console with enthusiasm, jumping around like a happy puppy. He'd been in that good mood since I found him again in Cardiff, and I'd followed his lead. It was a wonderful way to live. There were certain things still in my head that were niggling away, but with all the places Dad was showing me, those were pushed to the back of my mind. The first place we went to was the planet Barcelona. Next was Peladon, then that cloud that Dad promised we'd go to. We only stopped running to sleep for four hours at a time, plenty for Time Lords to replenish our energy, then we'd jump up and set off on another adventure. We had been travelling for seven weeks now since Torchwood and the 456, and I was having the time of my life.

The TARDIS landed with a little bump.

"When are we?" I asked. Dad had a lively glint in his eye.

"April 2009, Easter." He replied, and nodded to the door, a signal he did whenever he was certain there were no (immediate) dangers outside. I giggled and skipped out, picking up my jacket on the way and putting it on over my blue T-shirt.

"Wow!" I exclaimed, looking across London's illuminated skyline. "Where are we, Dad?"

"If I got my coordinates right, we should be…" He called from the other side of the door, stepping out halfway through his sentence. "On the London Eye!" We sat and watched London for a while, chatting a little, but mainly just gazing across at all the lights and buildings.

"Right, on we go," Dad said suddenly, leaping up and walking back into the TARDIS.

"Where next?" I asked as I followed him in. He was already striding around the console.

"Seeing as it's Easter, how about an Easter egg?" He said.

"Yes please!" I exclaimed, and Dad pulled down the final lever.

We were wandering hand in hand down a London street, Dad holding the Easter egg we'd bought in his spare one.

"Come on, let's get this bus," Dad said, nodding over to a big red double decker. "See where it takes us!"

"You're just in time, mate." The driver muttered to Dad. He swiped the psychic paper across a scanner, and we were both let on the bus straight away. Dad plonked himself down next to a woman dressed all in black with hair almost as dark. She looked a bit shifty to me. I took the seats behind, leaning against the window and propping my feet up on the metal pole. It was comfier than a lorry load of potatoes.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor, this is Jenny," Dad grinned to the woman, holding out the chocolate egg. "Happy Easter!" I poked my head between them and took a piece of chocolate, giving the woman a happy grin as she glanced at us both with a frown.

"Do you know, Da- Uncle, I think I love this time of year," I began, leaning back down. "This chocolate is gorgeous!"

"Well, the funny thing is, Jen, I don't often do Easter. I can never find it, always on a different day," He replied merrily. "Although I remember the original. Between us three, what really happened was-" I heard a beeping sound coming from Dad's coat.

"Is that your little dish?" I asked.

"Yes, Jen," he replied absent-mindedly, shoving the Easter egg into the woman's hand. "Sorry, hold on to that for me. Actually, go on, have it. Finish it, and you Jen, call it a birthday present. It's full of sugar and I'm determined to keep these teeth." He pulled the device out as he finished his sentence. It was lit up with yellow and green, and there was a silver dish on top.

"Ah! Oh, we've got excitation. I'm picking up something very strange, Jen." He commented casually.

"Oh, does that mean an adventure?" I replied with an excited grin.

"Possibly," he said. "Rhondium particles, that's what we're looking for. This thing detects them. Look, this should go round, that little dish there."

"Right now, a way out would come in pretty handy," the woman replied sarcastically. "Can you detect me one of those?"

"Why do you need a way out?" I asked her suspiciously. She ignored me and watched Dad jump up from his seat, the little dish held up right in front of his eyes. It started rotating as he stood.

"Ah, the little dish is going round!" He exclaimed.

"Fascinating." The woman commented, sounded utterly uninterested. She kept snatching glances out of the window, as if something was following her.

"It is fascinating!" I repeated with much more intrigue.

"And round," Dad muttered, his eyes still on the dish. "Whoa!" The device sparked, and those white sparks hit the blonde woman sat in front.

"Excuse me, do you mind?" She said, annoyed.

"Sorry, that was my little dish." Dad replied.

"Why's it doing that, Uncle?" I asked.

"Can't you turn that thing off?" The woman holding the Easter egg said. Dad turned around, stuffing the dish back in his coat, and sat down again. He had a very worried look on his face, which in turn made me anxious.

"What was your name?" He asked the woman.

"Christina."

"Christina, Jenny, hold on tight," Dad ordered loudly.

"What's wrong?" I asked quickly.

"Everyone, hold on!" He shouted, ignoring me, and the bus suddenly jolted forwards. Everyone was thrown around, including me. I shot forwards into Christina's back before gripping the pole next to me. Windows were smashing nearer the back of the bus. People were shouting out terror-filled and confused questions. Abruptly, the bus hit a bright white light which engulfed the vehicle and forced me to squeeze my eyes shut to stop from being blinded. Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. The bus lowered as it settled, and the high temperature from wherever we were penetrated the vehicle. I opened my eyes to see a golden glow from the sky, and outside was just desert. Sand for miles, as far as I could see. Dad stood up.

"Jen, are you OK?" He asked quietly.

"Yes, I'm fine," I replied. "What about you?"

"Oh, I've been through worse." He said and smiled slightly. I grinned back and stood up too, the both of us leading the humans out of the bus. We stepped down on to the sand.

"End of the line," Dad said. "Call it a hunch, but I think we've gone a little further than Brixton."

"Just a little bit further, yeah." I chuckled.

"It's impossible!" The blonde woman exclaimed. "There are three suns, three of them!"

"Like when all those planets were up in the sky." A young dark-skinned man in a hoody said.

"But it was Earth that moved back then, wasn't it?" Another man added, around the same age as the first.

"Yep, well done boys," I replied to them happily. "We're on another world this time." I felt a pair of eyes watching me as the driver and the blonde woman discussed the bus's damage. I turned to find out where the feeling came from, and saw one of the passengers quickly avert his eyes from mine. He was thin and blonde with a boyish face, and he seemed nervous. His hands were firmly in his pockets and he was staring down at his feet, glancing up every so often then back down when he met my eyes. I gave him a sceptical look and twisted away, strolling towards Dad, who was knelt down a little away from the group with Christina stood next to him.

"Ready for every emergency." She said as she put on a pair of sunglasses. Dad took off his spectacles and subtly sonicked them, turning back with tinted lenses.

"Me too." He said. I raised my eyebrows at him and giggled.

"And what's your name?" Christina continued.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Name, not rank."

"The Doctor."

"Surname?"

"The Doctor."

"You're called the Doctor?"

"Yes, I am."

"That's not a name, that's a psychological condition."

"Anyway," I interrupted loudly. "What sort of sand is it, Uncle?"

"The funny sort," he replied, sprinkling some into my hand. "There's a trace of something else." We simultaneously licked a couple of grains.

"Urgh!" I exclaimed with disgust.

"Glah! Not good." Dad reacted similarly.

"Well, it wouldn't be. It's sand." Christina said with more sarcasm.

"No, it tastes like… something else." I replied, giving Dad a dark look.

"Yeah, never mind." He muttered, returning the knowing expression, and leaping to his feet.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Christina asked us as we strode back to the group of humans.

"Hold on a minute, I saw you, mate," the man in the hoody said, pointing an accusing finger at Dad. "You had that thing, that machine. Did you make this happen?"

"'Course he didn't!" I replied angrily, my defences springing up straight away as they seemed to whenever anyone insulted or accused Dad.

"Humans on buses, always blaming me!" Dad sighed. "Look, if you must know, we were tracking a hole in the fabric of reality. Call it a hobby, but it was a tiny little hole! No danger to anyone! Suddenly it gets big and we drive right through it."

"But then where is it?" The bus driver asked. "There's nothing. There's just sand."

"Well, that's not nothing, then, is it?" I replied, winking at Dad, who chuckled slightly.

"All right," he started, skipping forwards with a handful of sand. "You want proof? We drove through this!" He threw the grains at the invisible wormhole, which shimmered and wobbled as it was hit.

"And that's?" Christina asked.

"A door," Dad replied. "A door in space."

"So what you're saying is on the other side of that is home? We can get to London through there?" The driver exclaimed.

"The bus came through, but we can't."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" He laughed, and started towards the wormhole.

"No!" I yelled.

"No, don't!" Dad shouted.

"I'm going home, mate!" The driver said, still stumbling forwards.

"I said don't!" Dad repeated, me shouting similar protests simultaneously. The man continued despite us, though, and entered the wormhole. We heard a horrific scream and the man's skeleton flashed, faltered forwards (reminding me of Jack's body when he was shot by the Supreme Dalek), and disappeared.

"He was a skeleton, man! He was bones! Just bones!" The hoodied man exclaimed, sounding overwhelmed.

"And that's why nobody else is attempting to get back through there on their own," I said, turning to face the humans. "The bus protected us last time."

"Look at the damage," Dad continued. "Great big box of metal."

"Rather like a Faraday cage?" Christina asked. She sounded interested for once.

"Like in a thunderstorm, yeah?" The man in the hoody added. "Safest place is inside a car, because the metal conducts the lightning right through. We did it in school."

"But we need to travel back inside the bus, Uncle," I said. "How are we gonna do that when the thing's ripped open?"

"Slightly different dynamics with a wormhole, Jen," Dad replied, scrutinising the damaged end of the bus. "There's enough metal to make it work, I think. I hope."

"Then we have to drive five tonnes of bus, which is currently buried in the sand, and we've got nothing but our bare hands, correct?" Christina asked.

"I'd say nine and a half tonnes, but the point still stands, yes." Dad confirmed.

"Then we need to apply ourselves to the problem with discipline, which starts by appointing a leader." She began, bringing herself up to maximum height.

"Yes! At last, thank you, so-" Dad started.

"Well, thank goodness you've got me," Christina interrupted. "Everyone do exactly as I say. Inside the bus immediately."

"Is it safe in there?" The second younger man asked her.

"I don't think anything's safe anymore, but if it's a choice between baking in there or roasting out here, I'd say baking is slower," she replied lightly. "Come on, all of you. Right now. And you two, Jenny. The Doctor."

"Yes, ma'am." Dad said as I raised my eyebrows at him and followed everyone back on to the bus.

"Point five: the crucial thing is, do not panic. Quite apart from anything else the smell of sweat inside this thing is reaching atrocious levels. We don't need to add any more," Christina was saying, stood at the front of the bus. "Point six: team identification. I'm Christina. This man is apparently the Doctor."

"Hello!" Dad smiled. "And this is my niece."

"I'm Jenny." I added with a wave. The man who kept looking at me widened his eyes slightly.

"And you?" Christina asked, looking at a young man sat just in front of her.

"Nathan."

"I'm Barclay." The one in the hoody sat behind him said.

"Angela. Angela Whittaker." The blonde woman said nervously.

"Charlie King." The guy who was staring at me earlier, and had stayed quiet up till now, said. His accent was similar to Jack's.

"My name's Louis, everyone calls me Lou," An older man said, sat near the back with his wife. "And this is Carmen."

"Excellent. Memorise those names, there might be a test," Christina smiled. "Point seven. Assessment and application of knowledge. Over to you, the Doctor."

"I thought you were in charge?" Dad asked her.

"I am," she replied. "And a good leader utilises her strength. You seem to be the brainbox. So start boxing."

"Right," he said, sitting up on the back of his seat. "So, the wormhole. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was just an accident."

"No, it wasn't," the older women, Carmen, retorted. "That thing, the doorway? Someone made it for a reason."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"She's got a gift," her husband explained. "Ever since she was a little girl. She can just tell things. We do the lottery twice a week."

"You don't look like millionaires." Christina commented slightly nastily, I thought.

"No, but we win ten pounds. Every week, twice a week, ten pounds," Lou said calmly. "Don't tell me that's not a gift."

"Tell me, Carmen, how many fingers am I holding up?" Dad said to her, putting a hand behind his back.

"Three."

"Four." She got it right, both times.

"Very good!" I grinned.

"Low level psychic ability, exacerbated by an alien sun. What can you see, Carmen?" Dad asked. "Tell me, what's out there?"

"Something," she said immediately. "Something is coming. Riding on the wind, and shining."

"What is it?"

"Death. Death is coming." Carmen said steadily, sparking several of the bus passengers to cry out.

"We're going to die!"

"I knew it, man! I said so!"

"We can't die out here, no one's going to find us!"

"This isn't exactly helping." Christina said loudly.

"You can shut up too," Barclay argued amongst everyone's wailing, except for Charlie King, who remained silent. "We're not your soldiers."

"That's not doing any good." She replied.

"Quiet." Lou tried.

"Will we be bones, like the bus driver?"

"Stop whimpering, all of you." Christina ordered to little success.

"All right now, stop it. Everyone, stop it!" Dad yelled, shutting absolutely everyone up. I giggled to myself at their shocked faces, and Angela began to sob. "Angela, look at me. Angela? Angela?" Dad said, moving closer to her. "Answer me one question, Angela. That's it. At me, at me." She looked up into his face. "There we go. Angela, just answer me one thing. When you got on this bus, where were you going?"

"Doesn't matter now, does it?" She stammered.

"Answer the question." Dad repeated. Angela paused.

"Just home."

"And what's home?"

"Me and Mike, and Suzanne. That's my daughter, she's eighteen."

"Suzanne, good," Dad said, turning to Barclay. "What about you?"

"Don't know," he replied reluctantly. "Going round Tina's."

"Who's Tina, your girlfriend?" I asked him.

"Not yet." He grinned slyly.

"Good boy," Dad smiled back. "What about you, Nathan?"

"Bit strapped for cash, I lost my job last week. I was going to stay in and watch TV."

"Brilliant," Dad replied cheerily. "And you, Charlie?"

"Me?" The American said, seeming scared to speak. "I, um… just meeting a friend." He kept glancing at me as he replied to Dad.

"Good," I said. "And you two, Lou, Carmen?"

"I was going to cook." Lou said.

"It's his turn tonight, then I clear up." Carmen added.

"What's for tea?" Dad asked them.

"Chops. Nice couple of chops and gravy, nothing special."

"Oh, that's special, Lou. That is so special. Chops and gravy, mmm," Dad smiled. "What about you, Christina?"

"I was going… so far away." She sighed.

"Far away, chops and gravy-"

"-meeting a friend, watching TV-"

"-Mike and Suzanne, and poor old Tina." Dad and me alternated.

"Hey!" Barclay chuckled.

"Just think of them. Because that planet out there, all three suns, wormholes and alien sand, that planet is nothing. You hear me? Nothing, compared to all those things waiting for you. Food and home and people. Hold on to that, because we're going to get there. I promise. We're going to get you home, Jenny and me." Dad told them, and I smiled with pride.

Christina had set everyone to work after our team talk on the bus. Angela was given the job of getting the engine restarted, Dad and me had to explain everything that was happening as it happened, seeing as we were the 'brainboxes', and Nathan, Barclay and Charlie were to rip some of the seats up from the bus and put them underneath the wheels.

"Here we go." Barclay said as he stepped down on to the sand.

"That's my boys!" I said happily.

"See, we lay a flat surface between the bus and the wormhole-" Dad explained.

"-like duckboards, and we reverse into it." I finished.

"Let some air out of the tyres, just a little bit. It spreads the weight of the bus, gives you more grip against the sand." Christina suggested.

"Oh, that's good!"

"Holidays in the Kalahari."

"Oh, Kalahari!" I exclaimed. "Uncle, we should go there!" Dad chuckled.

"But those wheels go deep." Barclay said, looking down at the tyres.

"Then start digging." Christina smiled.

"With what?"

"With this." She said, pulling a spade from her rucksack.

"Does that bag have Time Lord Science or something?" I muttered sarcastically.

"Got anything else in there?" Dad asked.

"Try that," she said, producing an axe and passing it to Charlie. "It might help with the seats." I raised my eyebrows at him as he walked past, holding the wooden handle apprehensively, and it looked like he wanted to smile back.

"I can't find the keys!" I heard Angela call from inside the bus. I followed Dad to the doors.

"Oh no, buses don't have keys," he explained. "There's a master switch, then it's one button to start, the other to stop, yeah?"

"Right, hold on. Oh, I've got it," Angela said hopefully. "Here we go, hold tight. Ding ding!" She pressed the right buttons and the engine leapt into life, but made a struggled grumbling noise for a few seconds, so Angela turned it off.

"Ooh, that doesn't sound too good." Dad commented.

"Better have a look," I said, and walked around to the back of the bus, where there was smoke. A lot of smoke. "Uh oh."

"Never mind losing half the top deck, you know what's worse?" Dad said as he and Christina joined me.

"Sand." I answered.

"Yes, Jen. Tiny little grains of sand. The engine's clogged up."

"Anyone know mechanics?" Christina asked the group.

"Me," Barclay replied, standing up from one of the wheels. "I did a two week NVQ at the garage. Never finished it, but-"

"Off you go then, try stripping the air filter. Fast as you can," Dad said cheerily. "Back in two ticks. Come on, Jen."

"Wait a minute!" Christina called as she followed us off into the dunes. "You're the pair with all the answers. I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"Easier if you left that backpack behind." Dad said lightly.

"Where I go, it goes." Christina replied.

"A backpack with a spade and an axe," I wondered aloud. "Going so far away."

"Yet scared by the sound of a siren," Dad added. "Who are you, Christina?"

"You two can talk," she exclaimed. "We're just equal mysteries."

"We make quite the team!" Dad chuckled.

"So, as my team mates, tell me," she started. "If Carmen's right, the wormhole's not an accident, then what is it? Has someone done this on purpose?"

"I don't know, but every single instinct of mine is telling me to get off this planet right now."

"And do you think we can?"

"We live in hope." I said happily.

"That must be nice," Christina sighed. She was definitely hiding something. "It's Christina de Souza. To be precise, Lady Christina de Souza."

"Oh, that's handy," Dad replied. "Jen's a Lady."

"And he's a Lord." I added with a smile.

"Seriously? Lord and Lady of where?"

"It's quite a big estate."

"No, but there's something more about you," _Lady _Christina said suspiciously. "That device you were carrying, and the wormhole. Like you knew. And the way you both stride about this place, like…"

"Like?"

"Like you're not quite…" We had stopped, and Christina was gazing into Dad's eyes, mystified. I felt just a little awkward.

"Anyway!" I said loudly.

"Yes, sorry, come on, allons-y!" Dad added.

"Oui, mais pas si nous allons vers un cauchemar." Christina replied, following me along the top of the dune.

"You speak the lingo!" I exclaimed.

"We were made for each other!" Dad declared with laughter in his voice. We had walked over one of the dunes, and were cresting another, the horizon hazy in the distance.

"Ah, don't like the look of that." Dad muttered.

"Storm clouds," Christina announced. "Must be hundreds of miles away."

"But getting closer." Dad replied mysteriously.

"If that's a sandstorm, we'll get ripped to shreds." She said, looking up at Dad with more concern.

"Yes, we would," I replied, standing in front of the other two to get almost a closer look. "If it was a sandstorm."

"What? It's not sand?"

"Nobody said it was." Dad frowned, joining me a couple of steps ahead.

"But either way, an alien storm coming closer doesn't exactly give good signals." I said.

"Nope, not at all," Dad agreed, the both of us squinting to see it clearer. "So, I would suggest…" I grinned at him, and we abruptly bounded away, back towards the bus, Dad and me hand in hand and Christina a few paces behind.

"Anyone got a phone?" Dad shouted as we reached the group.

"Yeah." Barclay replied, standing up from the front wheel.

"Where is it?" Dad continued as we leapt on to the bus.

"There, there on the seat." I jumped up on to the back of a seat as Dad picked up the phone and sat down himself, the others all gradually filing in to see what the commotion was about.

"You're hardly going to get signal," Christina said. "We're on another planet!"

"Ah, magic!" I giggled as Dad sonicked the phone.

"Right, bit of hush, thank you! Got to remember the number, very important number." He yelled at top speed, punching the buttons and putting it to his ear. There was a pause. "And again… seven six, not six seven…"

"This is the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Please select one of the following four options…" the robotic voice on the phone said. Charlie, stood awkwardly just behind Dad, widened his eyes slightly and put a hand over his mouth. I frowned at him. Another one keeping something secret?

"Oh, I hate these things." Dad moaned.

"If you keep your finger pressed on zero, you get through to a real person," Angela suggested. "I saw it on Watchdog."

"Thank you, Angela." Dad said, immediately following her instruction.

"UNIT helpline. Which department would you like?" A woman said politely through the phone.

"Listen, it's the Doctor. It's me." Dad said, his voice low and his brow furrowed.

"I'll transfer you to Headquarters, sir."

"UNIT Headquarters, how can I help?"

"This is the Doctor," Dad restarted. "I'm on the 200 bus."

"Captain Magambo is at the tunnel, sir. I'll transfer you." A few seconds later, a new voice sounded.

"Doctor? This is Captain Erisa Magambo," she said. "Might I say, sir, it's an honour." I was miming salutes to Dad as she spoke, giggling and poking out my tongue as he whispered for me to stop with a massive grin on his face.

"Did you just salute?" He asked her, his voice slightly strained from trying not to laugh. She paused.

"No." Captain Magambo said uncertainly.

_"She did." _I mouthed cheekily.

"Erisa, it's about the bus," Dad said to her, trying to act seriously, but his eyes were still smiling. "HQ said you're at the tunnel, yeah?"

"And where are you?" I heard her ask.

"I'm on the bus, but apart from that, not a clue," he replied. "Except it's very pretty, and pretty dangerous."

"A body came through here. Have you sustained any more fatalities?"

"No, and we're not going to, but I'm stuck. I haven't got the TARDIS, and I need to analyse that wormhole."

"We have a scientific advisor on site: Doctor Malcolm Taylor. Just the man you need. He's a genius." I spotted Charlie flinch out of the corner of my eye.

"Oh, is he? We'll see about that." Dad replied disbelievingly. Captain Magambo started speaking to someone else, a Welsh man (I recognised the accent from Gwen and Rhys and… the other people in Cardiff), who I assumed was Doctor Malcolm Taylor.

"It's the Doctor."

"No, I'm all right now, thanks. It was just a bit of a sore throat. Although I've got to be honest, a cup of tea might be nice."

"It's _the _Doctor."

"Do you mean the _Doctor _Doctor?"

"I know. We all want to meet him one day, but we all know what that day will bring."

"We can hear you!" I sang. There was a shuffling sound, then Malcolm's voice became much clearer.

"Hello Doctor?" He said. "Oh my goodness!"

"Yes, I am," Dad replied. He looked totally bemused. "Hello, Malcolm."

"The Doctor. Cor blimey! I can't believe I'm actually speaking to you! I mean, I've read all the files."

"Really? What was your favourite, the giant robot?"

"Um, Dad?" I interrupted, before the conversation went entirely off-topic.

"Dad?" I heard Christina mutter.

"Oh, sorry. Lost myself a second." I replied with a dismissive wave of my hand.

"Oh, Jen. Can't trust you with anything, can I?" Dad grinned, whilst the others looked at each other with a mixture of surprise and confusion, apart from Charlie. "Anyway, hold on, let's sort out that wormhole," he continued, going back to the phone. "Malcolm, something's not making sense here. I've got a storm and a wormhole, and I can't help thinking there's a connection. I need a complete full range analysis of that wormhole, the whole thing."

"Well, I've probably got the wrong idea, but I've wired up an integrator," Malcolm began. "I thought it could measure the energy signature." I shook my head at Dad, and as I did so, I noticed Charlie doing the same.

"No no no no no, that'll never work. Listen-" Dad started.

"It's quite extraordinary, though. I'm measuring an oscillation of fifteen Malcolms per second."

"Fifteen what?"

"Fifteen Malcolms," he explained. "It's my own little term. A wavelength parcel of ten kilohertz operating in four dimensions equals one Malcolm."

"You named a unit of measurement after yourself?" Dad asked sarcastically.

"Well it didn't do Mr Watt any harm. Furthermore, one hundred Malcolms equals a Bernard."

"And who's that, your Dad?"

"Don't be ridiculous," he said. I raised my eyebrows and nodded at Dad. "That's Quatermass." Dad blinked.

"Right, fine. But before I die of old age, which in my case would be quite an achievement, so congratulations on that, is there anyone else I can talk to?"

"No no no no, but listen. I set the scanner to register what it can't detect and inverted the image." Malcolm desperately explained. And it worked, because it was brilliant. I heard a chuckle. I looked past Dad at everyone, and the only person smiling was Charlie.

"You did what?" Dad asked, almost dumbfounded.

"Is that wrong?"

"No, Malcolm, that's brilliant! So you can actually measure the wormhole. OK, I admit, that is genius."

"The Doctor called me a genius!" I heard Malcolm exclaim.

"I know, I heard." Captain Magambo said in the background.

"Now, run a capacity scan, I need a full report," Dad instructed. "Call me back when you've done it. And Malcolm? You're my new best friend."

"Hey!" I exclaimed jokingly.

"And you're mine too, sir!" Malcolm laughed, and Dad cut him off.

"Barclay, I'm holding on to this!" He called as he jumped up and off the bus. I heard Barclay shout something about bringing the phone back before I followed Dad outside. He was walking purposefully towards the dunes again with Christina beside him, and I skipped to catch up.

"Jen, you stay here, we'll only be a tick." He called.

"What? Why?" I exclaimed.

"I need you back at the bus, keep everyone in check," he winked.

"Dad!" I whined.

"What, Jenny?" He replied, stopping in his tracks and waving his arms in the air.

"You said you wouldn't leave me again," I mumbled so that Christina couldn't hear. "You promised."

"I'm not leaving you, Jen," he said quietly, walking towards me. "I'll be two minutes." He paused and gave me a small smile, then kissed my forehead. He strolled away with Barclay's phone still in his hand, Christina following him smugly. I heard her say something about us being father and daughter, not uncle and niece, as they got further away across the sand.

"You'd better be two minutes." I mumbled, turning back with my arms crossed.

"Right, on we go, team!" I said as cheerfully as possible when I reached the bus again. Nathan was still persevering with the tyres, and Barclay was just about to join him.

"Good work, boys." I said as I walked past, back on to the bus. Lou and Carmen were sat in their seats, the same ones that they had been since London. I didn't think they'd moved an inch the entire time. Angela was perched on the edge of another seat, and Charlie was leaning uncomfortably against a pole, his arms folded, looking down at his feet.

"OK, Angela!" I started. "Get in that driver's seat, yeah? Keep an eye on that engine. Carmen! Tell me if you know anything new, and Charlie King! With me, outside, let's get to work on those wheels." I hopped down the steps with Charlie following behind me, no arguments. Nathan and Barclay had taken the wheels on the door side of bus, and they seemed to be getting along well.

"We'll start on the other side." I said, wandering around the front. The tyres were well and truly dug into the sand on that side.

"Looks like we've got our work cut out." I commented moodily, and turned around to him. He was holding a paper coffee cup in his hand, and was looking at me nervously.

"Oh, this is yours." He said suddenly, noticing my glance down at the cup.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Coffee. I got you coffee." He stammered, holding it out.

"Where did you get that from?"

"Oh, just a little place back in London."

"What do you mean, back in London?"

"Well, um," He said, his voice getting quieter. "You, uh… you asked for it, right?"

"No, I don't think that was me." I smiled.

"Oh. Oh, it's just, well, she looked an awful lot like you." He said, a smile playing on his lips.

"Drop-dead gorgeous, then?" I laughed sarcastically, kneeling down to start moving sand away from the wheel.

"Yeah," Charlie replied immediately. I raised my eyebrows at him as he realised what he said. His eyes widened and he scratched the back of his head with his free hand, a little like Dad did when he was awkward. I giggled.

"So Charlie," I began, indicating for him to join me on the sand. "You haven't said a lot today."

"No." He muttered simply.

"And you're obviously not from London, are you?"

"No, I'm from Connecticut originally."

"Where's that? America?"

"Yes."

"So how did you end up in London?"

"I, uh… I had to leave."

"Why?" I was determined to find out Charlie's secret.

"I just had to, I guess."

"Right."

"And you're not from London, either, right?" He asked nervously, as if he didn't quite know how to carry on the conversation.

"Nope. How can you tell?"

"Well, your father is the Doctor, right?"

"Yeah… but how does that explain it?" I smiled. Charlie spluttered a little.

"Oh, I, uh… I…"

"Do you know him?" I asked.

"No, no. Not personally, no."

"What do you mean, not personally?"

"Well, I just… know who he is, that's all."

"How?"

"I, uh, he's just famous."

"Is he?"

"Yeah, kinda." I paused. Charlie had gone pink, and he was staring down at the sandy tyre intently. I smiled. He was cute, in a kind of shy way.

"Jenny?" I heard Nathan call. He and Barclay walked around from the back of the bus. "We've finished this side, the duckboards are down."

"Brilliant, boys!" I exclaimed. "Help us shift this lot, then we can get on and get you all home." They nodded, and started digging around the other wheel.

"Nathan, Barclay," I said, pausing for a second. "Is my Dad back yet? The Doctor?"

"No, he's not." Nathan replied. Dad said he would be two minutes, and we'd been talking for at least fifteen. Where was he now?

"About that, I thought he said you were his niece earlier?" Barclay asked, looking suspiciously over at me.

"Yeah, he did," I replied. "It was a lie, sorry."

"Well, it's not a surprise," Nathan said. "You two are quite close, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess we are." I smiled, and went back to burrowing out the sand in silence, my thoughts filled with what Dad was doing, and what Charlie's secret could be. That lasted for a few minutes.

"I'm gonna see how Angela's getting on with that engine." I announced suddenly, jumping to my feet and walking back around the bus. I scanned the sand as I went, but Dad and Christina weren't there. I groaned quietly.

"Angela," I said as I hopped up the steps. "How's that engine?"

"It's still not working, I've tried a few times." She replied, sat in the driver's seat.

"Show me." I said. Angela pressed the button to start the engine. It grumbled for a few seconds, straining and struggling, but then it all cut out on its own.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I don't know," Angela said, her voice shaking. "It hasn't done it before." I leaned over the wheel and underneath, searching for the cause. My eyes stopped on the dials and clocks just behind; specifically, the petrol one. It was empty.

"Oh, Angela," I groaned. "We're out of gas."

A couple of minutes later, the whole group were sat back inside the bus. Angela was quietly sobbing while Nathan comforted her, and Charlie and Barclay stood beside me. I was using Nathan's phone to call Dad.

"Yeah?" His voice sounded.

"Where the hell are you?" I exclaimed, unable to control my mouth for a second.

"Tritovore ship, Jen," he replied. "They came to San Helios to trade, but got stuck, too."

"We're not the only ones here, then?" I said hopefully.

"Nope."

"Good! Well, not good for them, but, you know…"

"Anyway, how's it going down there?" He asked.

"Oh yeah, well, not great if I'm honest, Dad," I answered. "We kept trying the engine, and-"

"It's my fault." Angela sobbed.

"Stop saying that!" I snapped.

"Why, what's happened?" Dad asked urgently.

"We're out of petrol," I sighed. "Even when we get the wheels out, the bus is never likely to move, Dad. Not on its own," He was silent. "Dad? What do we do?" I heard Christina mutter something on the other end, then the line went dead.

"Oh, brilliant." I murmured, and threw the phone down on a seat. I looked up and saw everyone watching me expectantly.

"Right!" I started. "Back to work, boys!"

"But there's no point," Barclay said. "The bus can't move."

"Well, it definitely won't if the wheels are still stuck by the time we do come up with a plan," I retorted, pulling Charlie and Nathan by the arms outside. "Come on. Get that sand out." The three boys settled patiently back down by the wheels, extracting more grains from underneath the tyres. I leant against the side of the bus, watching them, and thinking hard about ways to get the great red thing moving. Something to tow it? But we didn't have anything big enough. Could everyone lift it? No, it was too heavy, and we all need to be inside. Some sort of device to drive it? Another power source? That might work, but what? Where would we get it from?

"Jenny, I think we're done." Nathan said, pulling me out of my trance. They had already put the boards down without me realising.

"Well done, boys!" I grinned. Suddenly, I heard a noise. A buzzing, distant noise that was getting louder. I turned to look into the distance. The hazy cloud from earlier was now sharper, with tiny silver dots scattered amongst it. Like metal. Like some kind of metal blizzard of metal creatures.

"In in in in! Everyone on the bus, now!" I shouted, rushing back to the open doors. I made sure that Barclay, Nathan and Charlie were on board first, then leapt up myself.

"It sounds like a storm." Nathan was saying as I took a seat next to Charlie.

"If it rains, we've got water." Angela said hopefully.

"No water. All of it dust," Carmen said as I shook my head. "But the girl!"

"Don't now, sweetheart! What girl?" Lou said to his wife.

"The girl. She will fly." Carmen finished. The girl? There were only two girls, I'd say, around. Christina and me. Carmen must have been talking about one of us. There was silence in the bus for a minute, before I grabbed Nathan's phone and called Dad to see what was happening at his end.

"Jen?"

"Dad, you OK? What's happening?"

"Looking down a gravity well at the Tritovore ship's engine."

"Ah, right."

"What about you?"

"Just sat on the bus, the wheels are all sorted, heard that storm of whatever getting closer. But Dad, if the ship's got a gravity well, then shouldn't there be a crystal nucleus down there?"

"Oh, Jenny, I've taught you well!" He exclaimed, and I could hear the grin in his voice. "You're right, why didn't I think of that? And… it looks like it survived the crash!"

"Brilliant!"

"That would work better than gasoline." I heard Charlie mumble. I frowned in his direction for a second. How did he know that?

"So, you two get that crystal, and we've got a way out!" I grinned.

"Exactly!" Dad replied. "I'll see you later, and be careful."

"Yeah, you too," I said, and put the phone down. My smile stretched right across my face. "Right, we've found a way home, team!" Everyone grinned widely and looked ecstatic at the news, which made me feel incredibly happy and proud.

"How did you know about the crystal?" I asked Charlie quietly a little while later. He rubbed his hands together nervously and shuffled his feet.

"I, uh-"

"Come on, Charlie, tell me. Don't you trust me?" I said with a friendly smile. He paused.

"OK," He mumbled. "OK, at home, back in the states, I worked in New York."

"Oh, nice! I'd love to go to New York. Dad said we will, one day. What did you do in the Big Apple, then?"

"I worked at UNIT." He admitted, staring at his feet with what looked like shame.

"Right," I said, frowning. "Which department?"

"Science, and a little mathematics too."

"So, you're one of the clever ones? The _really _clever ones?"

"Um, yes, I suppose."

"Why didn't you say? You could have helped."

"I-"

"Wait a minute, you said you had to leave, didn't you? Why?" He paused.

"When UNIT came under attack by the Daleks, when all those planets were in the sky, I ran," He said ashamed. I continued to frown. "I'm not proud of it." He added quickly, and then took a deep breath. "I was… terrified. I just ran away."

"And you survived, Charlie. You got yourself out."

"Yeah, but everyone else was killed. Everyone in my department. I should be dead." I blinked. He was obviously extremely intelligent, but the opposite of me. He wasn't a soldier, which was good, because sometimes a more human outlook was better. But, he _so _wasn't a soldier. Not in the slightest.

"I can't go back," he said, his voice wavering. "I would be condemned for cowardice. That's not the mark of a UNIT employee." Our hushed conversation ended abruptly as I spotted Dad and Christina running back towards us, the crystal sitting prettily in Dad's hand. I leapt up and off the bus to meet them.

"At last!" I cried as they reached me.

"Get everyone inside, get them sitting down," Dad ordered. I turned back to the people on the bus.

"Everyone, stay sat down! Stay exactly where you are!" I called, and twisted back down on to the sand.

"So what does that crystal do?" Christina was asking Dad.

"Oh, nothing. Don't need the crystal." He replied, and discarded the glittering clear stone over his shoulder.

"I risked my life for that!" Christina complained.

"No, you risked your life for these. The clamps." Dad corrected, passing me two of the black spidery metal clamps. I ran around the back of the bus and attached them to the wheels as Dad did the same on the other side.

"But what are the clamps for? Do they turn the wheels?" Christina asked as we hopped back on to the bus.

"Something like that." I replied with a smile.

"Have you got a hammer in your bag?" Dad asked her from the driver's seat.

"Funnily enough."

"Phone, phone. Jen, press redial." Dad said, tossing me Barclay's phone. I did as I was told and held it to his ear as he attached the last clamp to the steering wheel.

"Malcolm, it's me." He said.

"I'm ready!" I heard the scientist exclaim.

"Ready for what?"

"I don't know, you tell me!"

"I'm going to try to get back, but listen, there might be something following us. You need to close the wormhole."

"Would that be a compressed burst of feedback on a counter-oscillation, perchance?"

"Oh Malcolm, you're brilliant."

"Coming from you, sir, that means the world!"

"Doctor, what sort of something?" A woman said, and I recognised the voice as Captain Magambo. "That wormhole is now measuring ten miles and growing. I need to know the exact nature of the threat."

"Sorry, got to go." Dad replied, nodding at me to cut her off. He was looking down at the wheel with frustration. "Oh, it's not compatible. Bus, spaceship, spaceship, bus. I need to weld the two systems together."

"You need something non-corrosive, something malleable, Charlie?" I called back.

"Um, something ductile?" He added.

"Gold!" Dad exclaimed, and turned straight to Christina.

"Oh no you don't!" She said after a pause.

"Christina, what is it worth now?"

"Hey, hey, use this!" Barclay said suddenly, holding out a wristwatch.

"He said gold." I said.

"It is gold." He blinked.

"Oh, they saw you coming," Dad chuckled. "Christina." She reluctantly put her hands in her bag and pulled out an old golden cup. It was beautiful.

"What's that, Dad?" I asked.

"The Cup of Athelstan." He replied.

"It's over a thousand years old, worth eighteen million pounds. Promise me you'll be careful." Christina said slowly, passing the cup to Dad very delicately.

"I promise." Dad said as I snorted. He lifted the hammer that Christina had given him, and whacked it down on to the very expensive and very old artefact, knocking it out of shape.

"I hate you." Christina sighed. I grinned back at the group sat in the seats to give them some reassurance.

"This is your driver speaking, hold on tight!" Dad said over the speaker.

"But what for? What's he doing?" I heard Barclay cry.

"Do as he says!" Christina called back. "What are you doing?" Dad fired up the bus, and it worked.

"Come on, that's it! You can do it, you beauty. One last trip!" He yelled. I felt the whole vehicle lift into the air and the weight of the sand drop off of the tyres.

"You are so kidding me!"

"We're flying! It's flying!"

"He's flying the bus!"

"It's a miracle!" The passengers behind us shouted.

"Anti-gravity clamps, didn't we say?" I grinned.

"Round we go!" Dad said, spinning the wheel around so that the bus faced the wormhole.

"Doctor, Jenny, they are coming." Carmen called from the back. I turned to see a swarm of metal creatures moving very quickly towards us, towards the wormhole to London.

"Do you think this thing will survive the journey back?" Christina asked frantically.

"It's a bit late to stop and think about it." I said.

"And there's only one way to find out." Dad added. He looked and me and grinned cheesily. I gave him my own huge smile, and I knew exactly what he was thinking.

"ALLONS-Y!" We yelled together, and the bus surged forwards into the air. The whole thing shook violently and I gripped Dad's arm to steady myself. It suddenly went dark, then we zoomed up, out of the London tunnel, into the British air, the Earth's night sky. Below, I could see the bright lights of London, and a load of people and vans around the entrance of the tunnel.

"It's London!"

"We're back home!"

"He did it! He did it!" Everyone cheered and laughed behind us. I pressed redial on Barclay's phone again.

"Malcolm, it's the Doctor's daughter, close that wormhole!" I ordered.

"Yes, ma'am. My pleasure, ma'am!" He replied, and hung up.

"He's hung up on us!" I cried, looking blankly down at the phone.

"Try again!" Dad shouted. I hit redial.

"Malcolm!" I yelled.

"Not now, I'm busy!" He screamed, and the line cut off.

"He hung up again!" I exclaimed. Dad looked exasperated.

"Let me try!" He said. "Malcolm, listen to me!"

"It's not working!"

"I need that signal. We've got billions of those things about to fly through!"

"Well, what do I do?"

"Loop it back through the integrator, and keep the signal ramping up!"

"But by how much?"

"Five hundred Bernards!" Dad spluttered. "Do it now!"

"Doctor, it's coming for us!" One of the boys shouted. I saw one of the metal creatures heading straight for the side of the bus.

"Oh no you don't!" I cried, and grabbed the wheel from Dad, spinning it around and hitting the creature. It lowered slightly, and suddenly blew up, falling finally to the ground.

"Did I say I hated you?" Christina said to Dad. "I was lying." She leaned across me, aiming straight for Dad, and kissed him. I ducked away and skipped back to sit by Charlie, feeling incredibly awkward. Did she have to do that?

"Do not stand forward at this point," I heard Dad say over the speaker. "Ladies and gentlemen, you have reached your final destination. Welcome home, the mighty 200." Everyone clapped and cheered even more as the bus smoothly hit the ground amongst the UNIT cars and vans, and then the UNIT workers joined in too.

"Why can't you land the TARDIS like that?" I joked as we followed everyone off the bus.

"Welcome back," a security man said to everyone. "If you could step away from the bus, just to be safe. As fast as you can, thank you. It's standard procedure. We need to screen you and then you'll all be taken to debriefing." Dad flashed the psychic paper at the man.

"We don't count, come on, Jen." He said, and we strolled off.

"No, but Doctor?" I heard Christina call, but she was evidently stopped. We ambled over to the parked vehicles a little away, and I spotted a short man in spectacles and a lab coat rushing towards us.

"Doctor!" He exclaimed, and just by the voice, I could tell that this was Malcolm.

"You must be Malcolm!" Dad grinned. The brilliant scientist fell forwards and wrapped his arms around Dad, his head coming up just to his chest. Dad smiled happily down at me as I giggled.

"Oh! Oh, I love you!" Malcolm cried as he let Dad go. "I love you! I love you."

"To your station, Doctor Taylor." A woman behind him said, and I recognised her as Captain Magambo. Malcolm paused.

"Yes ma'am," he said, and started walking away. Just as we were about to turn back, too, though, Malcolm repeated "I love you!" loudly, pointing at Dad.

"And he loves you too, Malcolm!" I called, making him stumble slightly with joy.

"Doctor, I salute you whether you like it or not," Captain Magambo said, striding up to us and putting her hand to her head. "Now, I take it we're safe from those things?"

"They'll start again, generate a new doorway." I replied.

"It's not their fault, it's their natural life cycle. But we'll see if we can nudge the wormholes on to uninhabited planets," Dad finished. "Closer to home, Captain. Those two lads," he said, indicating Nathan and Barclay. "Very good in a crisis. Nathan needs a job, Barclay's good with engines. You could do a lot worse."

"Privates Nathan and Barclay, UNIT's finest." I added with a grin.

"I'll see what I can do," Captain Magambo said. "And I've got something for you." Behind her, I saw a little blue box being unloaded from a truck.

"TARDIS!" I yelled excitedly.

"Better than a bus any day, hello!" Dad said, striding across to the doors.

"Found in the gardens of Buckingham Palace." Captain Magambo told us.

"Oh, she doesn't mind." Dad replied casually.

"Now, I've got three dead alien stingrays to clear up. I don't suppose you fancy helping with the paperwork?"

"Not a chance." Dad said immediately.

"Till we meet again, Doctor, Jenny." She chuckled, and wandered away. Across the road, I saw Charlie stood next to Christina by the bus, everyone being scanned by UNIT workers. He looked very uncomfortable, and extremely scared. I knew why. This might have been UNIT in London, but they were connected to New York. If what Charlie thought was true, and it probably was seeing how clever he must have been, then he would be taken back to America and condemned. I skipped over to the group, past Christina, who had escaped and was walking quickly to Dad.

"Excuse me," I said to the UNIT workers. "I'm just going to have to steal this lovely boy a second, OK?" They nodded, and I tugged Charlie away by his sleeve, stopping halfway back to Dad and Christina stood talking outside the TARDIS.

"Do you know what that is?" I asked him, nodding at the blue box.

"Yes." He replied, glancing between it and me.

"Good," I smiled. "Want to travel in it?"

"What?" He said, clearly shocked.

"Charlie King, would you like to travel in the TARDIS with my Dad and me?"

"Um-"

"Oh come on, do you really have to think about it?" I exclaimed.

"I-"

"Planets and history and the future and adventures. Fancy it?"

"Well, yeah." He smiled slightly.

"Brilliant! Come on, then!" I laughed, grabbing his hand and dragging him over to the doors. Christina was being taken away in handcuffs as we reached them. Ah, that must have been what she was running from!

"Charlie King, this is the Doctor," I grinned. "Dad, Charlie's coming with us. Is that OK?"

"I just told Christina she couldn't!" He said.

"Well, Charlie's _my_ guest," I replied. "And you'll never guess what he's been hiding!"

"What?" Dad asked, looking between us both. I was about to tell him, when Carmen and Lou walked over to us and started speaking.

"Doctor? You take care, now." Carmen said.

"You, too! Chops and gravy, lovely."

"No, but you be careful," she continued. "Because your song is ending, sir." I tensed and clutched at Dad's hand, just to make sure he was still there.

"What do you mean?" He asked. I looked up into his face, and it was worried.

"It is returning. It is returning through the dark," Carmen said. "And then, Doctor? Oh, but then he will knock four times." An image of a blonde unshaven man flashed in my mind, grinning at me, and I had to shake my head to get it out. Who was that guy? Where did that image come from? Carmen and Lou smiled and walked away, back home. I looked up at Dad, who was avoiding my eyes. Instead, he pulled out the sonic screwdriver and buzzed it. I looked across to see Christina hopping out of a police car and running.

"Oi!" A man yelled.

"Stop that woman! Stop that woman! Stop her! Don't just stand there, stop her!" She ran towards the bus and leapt on, shutting the doors immediately. One of the men who put her in the handcuffs was staring inside by them.

"Open the door, I'll add resisting arrest." He threatened.

"I'd step back if I were you." I heard Dad say to him as he wandered over.

"I'm charging you, too! Aiding and abetting." The man said desperately.

"Yes. I'll just step inside this police box, and arrest myself." Dad replied, pointing at the TARDIS and sauntering back to Charlie and me. I watched Christina start the bus and it flew up into the air slightly. She stopped just above us, opening the doors and shouting down.

"We could have been so good together." She called to Dad.

"Christina!" He replied. "We were!" She grinned and shut the doors again, and the bus raised higher and higher into the sky. Lady Christina de Souza was off, and so were we. Our new Team Doctor: Dad, Charlie and me.


	12. Adventures of Two TimeLords and a Genius

"What do you think, Charlie boy?" Dad said, walking proudly around the TARDIS console. Charlie had just stepped into the box for the first time, and he was gazing around at the coral-themed room in awe. I had thrown my jacket on top of Dad's and followed him to the controls to help him fly, and now I was leaning against the console watching Charlie's reactions.

"There were rumours, but I didn't think…" He replied, staring up at the ceiling.

"It's good, though, isn't it?" I grinned.

"Yeah." He said, and began to chuckle quietly, walking up into the centre.

"Right then!" Dad said loudly, stopping next to the monitor. "First trip, Charlie. Off we go!" He pulled a lever, and the central column made its beautiful straining TARDIS noise.

"Where are we going, Dad?"

"Ah, it's a surprise for both of you." He said, giving me a wink. Suddenly, the TARDIS gave a mighty jolt, and I was thrown to the floor. I looked up to see Dad laid a couple of feet away and Charlie closer to the door. I started to giggle, and Dad let out a loud laugh, which made me laugh even more. Within a second, the both of us were hysterically cackling, almost breathless, and Charlie was frowning at us as he got to his feet. I rolled over and slowly pulled myself up, holding on to Dad's arm to steady myself as we were both still chuckling.

"Right," I sniggered. "Let's see where we are, Charlie!" I skipped across the room, pulling Charlie by the hand as I passed him, and yanked the doors open. Outside, was a breath-taking landscape, the sky rose-coloured with glittering white stars littered across it. The TARDIS was on a silver cliff and I stepped out on to it. It felt rock solid, but when I bent down and touched it, millions of tiny grains came away on my palm. I walked further to the end of the cliff, Charlie following me, and looked out on to a clear blue lake. Surrounding it were hundreds of bright green trees, making up a rich forest.

"Beautiful." I whispered.

"It's paradise." Charlie added. I heard Dad stroll out and shut the TARDIS doors.

"The planet Kataa Floko!" He announced. "Isop Galaxy. Pink starry skies all day long and perfumed forests. And, have you noticed, Jen? Underneath the water?" I knelt down and squinted over the cliff edge. After a couple of seconds, several sparkling figures became clear.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Charlie, do you see?"

"What?" He asked, sitting next to me.

"Diamonds!" I grinned.

"Yes, Jen," Dad smiled. "The diamond coral reefs of Kataa Floko. One of the most beautiful sights in the universe."

"I can see why." I replied.

"I wanted to take Donna here, but-" Dad started, and cut himself off once he realised what he'd said. I tore my eyes away from the water to look at him. His eyes were somehow blank and dark simultaneously. He would be better in a minute, I thought to myself. He often went into quiet trance-like states such as that when he accidently remembered someone he'd lost: Donna, someone called Astrid, Rose… I turned back to the cool blue lake. The colour reminded me of Jack's eyes. He would have loved it there. I wondered what that immortal man was doing as I watched the glimmer of the diamonds below the water's surface, and how he was feeling. I hoped he was OK, and not too lonely. Actually, the water reminded me of Charlie's eyes, too. They were a light soothing blue, and somehow gave a calm and quiet demeanour. Suddenly, the TARDIS gave a loud scream, echoing across the lake in Kataa Floko's silence.

"What was that?" I asked out loud as Dad leapt up and flew back through the doors. I looked at Charlie and shrugged, and we both got up and walked over to the TARDIS. Inside, Dad was rushing around the console desperately. As soon as Charlie had closed the doors behind him, the ship started to fly away, and Dad was still silent.

"Dad!" I shouted, grabbing his attention. "What is going on?"

"Sarah Jane," came his reply. "She's in trouble." I immediately jumped up to the console and helped Dad. Any friend of Dad's was a friend of mine, and I'd met Sarah Jane. She was a lovely woman, and her son.

"No no no no!" Dad yelled, frustrated.

"It won't let us land!" I said.

"No no no, come on!" Dad mumbled to himself, jumping forwards in time a little. Still no luck. "Something's stopping the TARDIS landing!"

"What is it? Seems like some kind of Trickster." I said. We continued working on the controls, and jumped ahead again by a few days. Finally, the TARDIS base hit some sort of floor with a skid.

"I'll be back in a minute," Dad yelled, grabbing his coat and running out of the doors before I could argue. Even when I followed him, the doors wouldn't open. It was like the box was no longer stationary.

"Jenny, what's going on?" Charlie asked me quietly. I turned to him.

"I'm not entirely sure," I replied as cheerfully as possible. "But I don't think the TARDIS is parked anymore."

"What can we do?" He said, and it gave me hope.

"This!" I grinned, and ran over to the monitor. Just as I thought, the screen told me the TARDIS was stuck in flux. "Temporal schism is preventing TARDIS materialisation," I read aloud for Charlie to hear. "So, let's help the girl out." We leapt into action, flicking switches and pushing buttons on the console. I kept an eye on the monitor to check whether the box had landed. The longer we worked for, though, the further away the TARDIS seemed to get.

"Come on, Charlie!" I exclaimed encouragingly. "We can do this!" He smiled from the opposite side of the console. "Maybe if I can lock the TARDIS on to Dad, that might help us land wherever he is…" I muttered, swinging the screen towards me. I hit a few of the keys and set it to find the pilot, and then, suddenly, the box zoomed towards partial-materialisation.

"Oh yes!" I laughed, still working on the controls to keep it there. After a few seconds, there was a slight banging at the door, and Dad burst through quickly.

"Dad!" I called happily. He was still looking out of the doors and talking to someone hurriedly.

"Come on, all of you! Get in! Come on, now!" He reached out and grabbed someone's hand, and I ran over to help. Outside, I could see three young humans (one of them Luke Smith) clinging in a row to Dad. I grabbed his other hand and pulled from the inside, trying to get the trio into the TARDIS.

"Charlie!" I yelled, holding out my left hand, and he grabbed that. All three of us were tugging frenziedly, but the teenagers weren't moving anywhere. Abruptly the doors slammed shut, leaving the three outside, and us in.

"Oh, Clyde," Dad murmured. "I hope you're as good as you've been so far." He paused. "You two are brilliant!" He exclaimed, turning around and pulling Charlie and me both into a hug. "But now, got to get to Sarah. The Trickster, like you said, Jen, has got those three stuck in one second, and Sarah in another."

"Well, we've got to get them all out." I said simply as Dad started again on the console.

"Yes, exactly." He replied with a flick of a lever, and rushed back over to the doors.

"Sarah!" He called. Over his shoulder, I could see Sarah Jane Smith in a pretty white dress with a man I didn't know.

"Doctor!" She replied.

"Got to be quick, the TARDIS can't stabilise. Clyde's keeping the Trickster busy for the moment. Oh, those three are just brilliant!"

"Doctor, what can I do? If I say no, we're trapped here forever. If I say yes, I condemn the world to the Trickster. Either way I lose, there's no way out."

"It all rests with you, Sarah. Your greatest challenge. The hardest thing you'll ever face in your life."

"What is it? Tell me what I've got to do."

"You've fought the Trickster before. You know how he operates, how he can be defeated."

"Oh, no. No."

"I know you're a good man, Peter. I'm so sorry." There was a screaming noise, and I spotted one of Luke's friends appear with a tall creature in a white.

"Clyde!" Sarah Jane shouted.

"I can't hold it!" The boy said, and then the TARDIS dematerialised.

"No, not again!" I complained.

"No no no no no, it's fine," Dad said, running back to the console as I followed him. Charlie was still stood there, looking a little like he didn't know what to do. "Sarah knows. We need to get Luke and Rani and K-9." He hit a button, and the TARDIS landed again, me running to the doors with Charlie this time. I slammed them open and rushed out, Luke and a girl sat on a set of stairs in front of us, a metal dog by their feet.

"Right, you two!" Dad said, striding out behind us. "If Sarah's done what I think she has, then she and Clyde should be just upstairs." They jumped and sprinted up, Charlie, Dad and me right behind them. At the top, we ran into a picturesque hall with lots of chairs out. Sarah Jane was knelt on the floor with Clyde across her lap.

"Mum!" Luke called when he saw her. She turned around and I saw tear tracks down her cheeks.

"Luke!" She exclaimed. "Doctor! Oh, Doctor."

"My Sarah Jane!" Dad replied proudly. "You did it. The trap's broken. Time's moving forward again, we're going home!" The room started to shake as Dad spoke, and I grabbed Charlie's hand.

"Hold on!"

"We're all going home!" Dad repeated. I rushed towards him, gripping his hand in my free one, and for a second I had my two boys right with me. The next second, we were stood in the TARDIS: Dad and me on opposite sides of the console, and Charlie nearer the doors.

"Well, you've got a good idea of what we do from that, eh Charlie?" I winked. He smiled uncertainly, glancing up and down from his shoes.

"Better make sure Sarah's OK," Dad muttered, fiddling with the controls yet again, but this time much calmer. The TARDIS took off and landed easily this time, and I heard Sarah Jane say "Sudden disappearing acts. That's him all over." Dad strolled out of the doors, and I decided to let him speak to his old friend alone.

"What do you take me for, Sarah?" I heard him say as I sat down on one of the seats around the edge of the room and indicated for Charlie to join me.

"How did you know how to fly the TARDIS?" I asked him, suddenly realising how clever he'd been earlier.

"Oh, I don't know," he stammered. "I just figured it out. It's like an extreme computer."

"You really are a genius, aren't you?" I smiled. He chuckled nervously.

"My TARDIS?" I heard Dad shout angrily outside. Charlie looked alarmed.

"Don't worry, that's his joking angry voice." I giggled. A second later, Luke, Rani, Clyde and Sarah Jane wandered into the room with Dad, the three inexperienced TARDIS-travellers gawping at everything around them.

"Oh, wow!" Clyde exclaimed. "It really is, isn't it? It's bigger on the inside!"

"It's beautiful!" Rani added.

"Transcendental dimensions!" Luke said enthusiastically.

"You are clever, Luke!" I replied, getting up and walking over to them. "Almost as much of a genius as you." I added under my breath, just so that Charlie could hear.

"Wow, what does this do?" Clyde asked, fiddling with something on the console.

"Hey, don't touch," Sarah Jane said to him, still stood beside Dad. "You came all that way for me?

"You're so important. Not just to me." Dad replied with a smile.

"Really special." I added.

"The Trickster wanted to end your story, but it goes on," Dad continued. "The things you've done, Sarah, they're pretty impressive, but, oh, the things you're going to do!"

"The future!" Luke exclaimed. "How about we could go for a ride?"

"Or back. To the dinosaurs, yeah?" Clyde asked excitedly.

"Another planet?" Rani joined in.

"No way!" Sarah Jane interrupted just as I was about to suggest going back to Kataa Floko. "For one thing, you were grounded by the Judoon. And your parents would never forgive me. Go on." The teenagers left the TARDIS grudgingly at Sarah Jane's word, leaving just Dad, Charlie and me with her.

"Is this the last time I'm ever going to see you?" She asked Dad quietly.

"I don't know," he replied. "I hope not."

"Goodbye, Doctor, Jenny, and you, young man," she smiled at the three of us. "Until the next time."

"Bye, Miss Smith." I replied, giving her a quick hug before walking back to the console.

"Don't forget me, Sarah Jane." I heard Dad say.

"No one's ever going to forget you." She said, and left the TARDIS to us. Dad paused where he was for a second, then leapt back to life.

"So, you two, where d'you fancy?" Dad asked, wandering happily around the TARDIS console, flicking a few levers and switches as he went. "I can take you to Mars? Women Wept? Or, we can go and see Shakespeare in the fifteen hundreds… I know! How about Richard Nixon? Tricky Dickie! Charlie, one of your old Presidents?"

"Actually, Dad," I said loudly, interrupting his stream of consciousness. "Could we go and say goodbye to someone else?" I looked up at him nervously, and his smile faltered as he nodded.

"Yep, sure," He said quietly. "The city of Cardiff!"

I smiled weakly at him, then at Charlie, who was frowning at me in confusion. I slumped down on one of the TARDIS chairs and waited for the blue box to land.

The TARDIS engine came to a stop. I was still sat on the cream seat at the edge of the room, Charlie next to me, and Dad was leaning against the console. No one spoke or moved for a couple of seconds, until I abruptly stood up and strode over to the door. I turned and looked back at Dad. He smiled in encouragement, which gave me a push to just go outside. I twisted back to the doors and took a deep breath, then swung them open confidently.

"You know, this box isn't all it's cracked up to be," I said immediately. "Too alien." I grinned at Gwen and Rhys as I leant against the panels. Gwen was very pregnant.

"Hello, Mr and Mrs Williams," I said to them, crossing my arms. "Gwen, you look beautiful, as always."

"She looks good, doesn't she?" An American voice said. It came from Captain Jack Harkness, who was stood a little way over to the right, wrapped tightly in his World War II coat.

"I look huge." Gwen replied, placing her hands over her stomach, but it was in pride rather than self-consciousness.

"She's bloody gorgeous." Rhys commented, smiling lovingly at his wife. I looked at the surroundings: it was dark, and we seemed to have landed on top of a grassy hill with hundreds of lights scattered around in the distance.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Just outside Cardiff." Gwen replied.

"Ah, good," I sighed. "Dad got it right, for once." I winked at the immortal man.

"Is he in there?" Jack asked me, and for the first time, he seemed less like a leader. He almost lost some years off his age with that one question, and the way in which he said it. Sympathy for the Captain overwhelmed me.

"Yeah, he's here," I replied quietly, and poked my head back in the TARDIS door. Dad and Charlie were talking next to the monitor. "Dad, Charlie!" They lifted their heads. "Come here a minute." Dad instantly walked across the room and stepped outside with me.

"Captain." He said, nodding towards Jack.

"Doctor." He replied. They paused.

"I have to thank you, Jack," Dad started. "For looking after her." He glanced over to the Welsh couple. "And you, too."

"It was our pleasure." Gwen smiled.

"She's a little firecracker, your daughter." Rhys added.

"She's brilliant." Jack said with a small smile. Dad grinned down at me proudly.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, she is, isn't she?"

"Oh, you guys," I joked. "You're embarrassing me!" Charlie stepped out behind me and smiled at everyone, then quickly looked down at his feet.

"This is Charlie." I announced.

"Another one?" Rhys exclaimed. "How do you all fit in that box?"

"Come and see, Rhys!" I replied, pushing the door open. The couple walked forwards eagerly and followed Dad, Charlie and me back inside the TARDIS. I skipped across the console as they entered, Jack right behind them.

"Same desktop, Doc," Jack commented. "I've missed this thing."

"Bloody hell, it's bigger on the inside, man!" Rhys breathed, gazing around the room in awe. Gwen had a similar expression.

"Rhys Williams, did you not learn anything from me about that language?" I chuckled. He grinned back.

"Oh, it's infinite," Dad said. "And you're Gwen Cooper!" He exclaimed, shaking Gwen's hand. "Good work with the planets. Jack did well, hiring you."

"Thank you, sir." She replied coyly.

"The Doctor," He corrected. "And congratulations, by the way!" Gwen and Rhys smiled at Dad and giggled as I stared worriedly at Jack. He was quiet, and I knew that the events of that week had affected him badly. It would anybody, if you had to kill your own grandson in front of your daughter with absolutely no other feasible choice. Watching your lover die before your eyes, not able to do anything about it. But he did save the Earth; that's not bad.

"You OK?" I asked him quietly.

_"No."_ He replied in my head.

"Anyway, let's go back outside," Gwen said loudly, before I had the chance to ask anything in more detail. "You don't want us filling up your spaceship, Doctor."

"Oh, we don't mind, do we, Jen?" Dad said, winking at me.

"Course not!" I agreed, but they were already stepping back on to the hill. When Dad and me stood outside of the TARDIS again, Gwen was talking to Jack.

"Did it work?" She asked him.

"Travelled all sorts of places," he replied with little expression. "This planet is too small. The whole world is like a graveyard."

"Come back with us." She pleaded.

"Haven't travelled far enough yet, got a lot of dirt to shake off my shoes," he said. "And right now, there's a cold-fusion cruiser surfing the ion reefs just at the edge of the solar system, just waiting to open its transport dock." He looked up at the stars with longing as he spoke.

"Want a lift?" Dad offered.

"No thanks," he said, looking across to us.

"Come on, Jack," I said. "Please."

"Jen, I need to be alone for a while." He explained simply.

"But-" I started, but Dad shushed me.

"I just need to send a signal, up there." Jack said, looking back at Gwen. She held up a finger as she searched through her pockets for something. In a couple of seconds, she'd pulled out Jack's vortex manipulator.

"They found it in the wreckage," Gwen smiled. "Indestructible, like its owner." I felt Dad tense as she threw it across to him.

"I put on a new strap for you." Gwen said.

"Cost me fifty quid, that." Rhys called.

"Bill me." Jack snapped at him a little harshly.

"Are you ever coming back, Jack?" Gwen asked him.

"What for?" He replied.

"Me." Gwen said. She was getting teary, and I could hear it in her voice.

"Jack," I added. "You've got to. For the good of human kind. They need you when Dad's not around."

"Torchwood, led by Captain Jack Harkness. Defending the Earth." Dad smiled. Jack looked at us, but didn't respond. He was too depressed and too guilty.

"It wasn't your fault." Gwen whispered.

"I think it was." He muttered.

"No." She said. I silently agreed with her.

"Steven and Ianto and Owen and Tosh and Suzie and… All of them. Because of me." Jack said. My hearts were breaking; it wasn't his fault. I didn't know who Owen and Tosh and Suzie were, but Steven and Ianto were not his fault. Definitely not, but I had a feeling that nothing anyone said would convince him otherwise at that moment. I decided to leave it to Gwen.

"But you saved us. Didn't you?" She said, her voice shaking.

"I began to like it, and look what I became," He replied. "Still, I have lived so many lives. Time to find another one." He stepped back from us all and lifted his arm in the air, which now had his wrist strap on. He pressed a button and I heard it beep.

"They died, and I'm sorry Jack, but you cannot just run away. You cannot run away." Gwen said a little louder, a last desperate attempt to get him to stay. A light appeared around the 51st century man, blue and white and shimmering.

"Oh yes I can, just watch me." And with that, Captain Jack Harkness was enveloped in light and shot up fast into the stars. I sighed heavily, and felt Dad put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I turned around to him.

"You let him go."

"I couldn't help him," Dad said quietly. "He was too far gone. He'll get better alone." I nodded sadly, and wrapped my arms around Dad's neck. He hugged me back, and I felt the love and care in it.

"You won't leave me again, will you Dad?" I whispered into his ear.

"I'm going to be extra careful, Jen." He whispered back. I let go and set myself down, turning back to Gwen and Rhys. She was sobbing into his jacket.

"Gwen?" I said quietly, walking up to the couple. She turned to me.

"Jenny." She wrapped me in a tight hug, in which I could feel her pain.

"It'll be OK," I whispered. "You've got Rhys, and your beautiful baby. And I've got Dad and Charlie."

"Yeah." She mumbled, letting go.

"Thank you, Gwen, and you, Rhys," I said. "You'll be great parents. Just don't lose yours, like my Dad did."

"Oi!" I heard Dad call from the TARDIS doors.

"We'd better go," I smiled at them both. "Good luck. I'll see you soon." I turned back to the TARDIS and strolled over to Dad, who was still waiting by the doors for me. We turned and waved at the couple one last time, and stepped back inside that little blue box.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: So a cross-over chapter with Who, Torchwood and Sarah Jane... hope you know that extra show too! Only had two reviews so far, and I would love some more! Read & Review! xx**


	13. The Waters of Mars

"Jen! I worked out the coordinates." Charlie said through the phone.

"Good work, genius! What are they?" I replied, glancing behind us as I heard the army marching close.

"3-2-6-delta-9-1-7."

"Jen, come on!" Dad yelled a few metres ahead.

"OK!" I called. The creatures were trooping along the previous corridor. "Dad, Charlie's got the coordinates!"

"What are they?"

"3-2-6-delta-9-1-7!" I got a sudden spurt of speed around a corner and caught up with Dad, who appeared to have been waiting for me.

"There you are!" He shouted, grabbing my hand and restarting his sprint. We tore down the web of metallic halls, our matching Converse burning tracks on the silver grating. Only four more corridors until Charlie in the TARDIS.

"You still got that dimension vault?" Dad asked me.

"Yep, it's in my jacket."

"You haven't lost it?"

"No, Dad!" Two more corridors. Most of the walls had become blurred with the speed of our running, but I glimpsed the blue and green and white of the Earth as we passed a window. One more corridor.

"Jen, you're close. I can see you." Charlie said in my ear. We darted around a corner.

"There she is!" Dad yelled happily. At the other end of the corridor, the TARDIS stood beautiful and blue against the fiery grey walls. We'd gained a good couple of hallways on the army, seeing as they couldn't go any faster than a walk. Dad and me stopped halfway down the corridor and pulled out the two dimension vaults.

"3-2-6-delta-9-1-7." Dad muttered as we typed in the coordinates that Charlie had found.

"Done!" We called simultaneously.

"You're getting good at this." Dad commented as we began attaching the devices opposite on the walls.

"I'm learning from the best, aren't I?" I grinned.

"Jen, Doctor!" Charlie's voice sounded through the phone. "The Cybermen are almost there."

"We're nearly done, Charlie boy!" Dad replied.

"Quickly!" He said frantically. The device clicked into place just as the metal men appeared around the corner.

"The Doctor and Jenny will be deleted!" The one in front cried robotically.

"Yeah? Delete this!" I exclaimed, and we hit the buttons on the dimension vaults. A purple light jetted up and down and between the two devices, creating a barrier of energy and hitting the first row of Cybermen. They leant backwards slightly as the energy pierced their shells and surged their insides, causing them to let out monotone screams. The energy conducted back through every single Cyberman in the corridor, each of them repeating those actions in canon. Dad and me were slowly backing away towards the TARDIS, his arm stretched out slightly in front of me. The Cybermen were still screaming, the purple light coursing through them, when after ten seconds they vanished from the ship and were sent across the stars to those coordinates. We leapt through the doors and into the TARDIS console room, where Charlie was stood by the monitor.

"Charlie, get the dimension vault ready!" Dad called as he ran over to the console and started to fly, me right behind him. The TARDIS engines revved and abruptly jolted away, and as the monitor told me we were off of the Cybership and above Earth in 2113, we stabilised. Charlie was waiting by the doors.

"Now!" Dad bellowed, and Charlie pulled them open, turned on the dimension vault in his hand, and sent the Cybership floating empty above Earth to some different coordinates. I released a breath I didn't realise I was holding in as Charlie pushed the doors together again, and Dad started chuckling.

"Oh, well done you two!" He exclaimed.

"And you, Dad!" I replied. "But you, Charlie King, are a genius!" I skipped over to him and briefly wrapped my arms around his neck. He let a sheepish grin spread across his face as I set myself back down on the floor panels.

"You know, there's not many people who can impress me. But you, Charlie, you are brilliant!" Dad added from the console.

"Thanks, Doctor." He sighed, like he was relieved. We all paused.

"So, now that the Cybermen are gone, where are we going next?" I said, bouncing back to the console.

"Where do you fancy?" Dad asked in reply as he began prancing around the controls. "I know! How about Mars?"

"Really? Mars again?" I groaned as Dad stopped in front of me and grinned eagerly.

"What's wrong with Mars?" He said.

"We've already been!" I replied. "There's nothing there. It's fine once or twice, but after that it's just a load of red rocks. I'd rather go somewhere new!"

"Oi! Leave-"

"I'd be happy to go see Bowie Base One, but you refuse to land in the 2050s." I interrupted, smiling cheekily.

"Now Jenny Smith, you know why we can't go there." Dad replied sternly. It was only at those moments when he acted like a strict parent, and I recognised them with the use of my 'full' name. I glanced at Charlie as he quickly looked at the floor and scratched his neck.

"Tell you what, I'll drop you two off back on Kataa Floko," Dad started, halting the awkward silence that was creeping into the console room. "I'll go to Mars, pick you up later on."

"Oh, trip without the father!" I giggled.

"As long as you behave yourself!" He said quickly, and pulled a lever. The TARDIS landed in half a minute, the central column glowing the familiar light green.

"Kataa Floko!" Dad exclaimed. "Right, I'll be back in a couple of hours. Charlie! Look after her. Make sure she doesn't get into any trouble."

"Hey!" I snapped jokingly from the TARDIS doors.

"I will." Charlie replied obediently. We opened the doors and stepped out on to the same silver cliff as before, over the diamond coral reefs and the blue lake, the pink starry skies and the green forest on either side. I sighed happily as the sun drizzled over us.

"Jen, don't go causing trouble!" I heard Dad shout distantly as the TARDIS whined behind us and disappeared into the vortex.

"And you, too!" I yelled back. Charlie chuckled lightly and wandered to the edge of the cliff. I followed him, and stopped by his side, looking out across the water.

"Just as beautiful as before." I sighed.

"Yeah." Charlie agreed.

"Come on, then," I said loudly, turning to him with a grin. "Let's go explore!" I grabbed his hand and pulled him away to the back of the cliff. I spotted a gap in the silver stone, where as I looked closer, there was a gentle slope down to the water. We took the path and skipped to the bottom jovially, still hand in hand. There were rocks made of the silver scattered lazily around the base of the cliff. We strolled across to the edge of the lake and knelt down. The water was even bluer from there, and I could see the diamonds in more detail. Up close, they somehow reflected every colour: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink… creating shimmering patterns as the light hit them.

"Wow." Charlie breathed.

"I know," I replied quietly. I didn't want to disturb the peace of the planet too much. "It's like the light of a million stars burning into rainbows and shining across the whole sky. It's like the Northern Lights on Earth. It's how I imagine the beauty of Gallifrey, how Dad describes it."

"Burning orange skies, silver leaves on the trees." Charlie mumbled.

"Yeah," I sighed. "Where did you hear that? Did they tell you at UNIT?"

"Um, yeah, yeah. At UNIT." He stammered. We sat there for a while, and I managed to lose myself in the exquisiteness of the lake, so much so that I also lost track of time. When I came out of my reverie, the sky was a much darker shade of rose and there were two white circles on the water where the moons were shining down.

"Charlie?" I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Let's see what's in the forest!" I grinned. He turned to me with a nervous smile.

"Really?"

"Yeah! Why not?"

"OK."

"Come on!" I jumped up and pulled Charlie with me, heading straight for the trees along the other side of the path. Even in the relative darkness, the leaves were still an incredibly bright shade of green and under their cover, I could see white and gold blossoms all around the thin tree trunks. We walked further in, hopping over some roots and stumbling on others, making each other laugh hysterically every time. After we'd been exploring for twenty minutes, I heard a dreamy high-pitched sound coming from the top of the trees. We paused, examining the leaves for a few seconds.

"There!" Charlie suddenly whispered, pointing up at a branch. I followed his gaze and saw a tiny bird. It was about half the size of a Cybermat and dark blue, it's breast a buttercup yellow. It was chirping merrily into the forest like a woodland creature from a Disney movie.

"You are beautiful!" I exclaimed in hushed tones. "A native Kataa-Flokan bird, Charlie." We watched it for a minute, until we heard another sing back in the distance, and ours fluttered off between the leaves to find the other. I twisted around, following its flight, and stopped opposite Charlie as I lost sight of the bird. He was smiling.

"What?" I giggled.

"Nothin', I was just…"

"What?"

"Nothin'." He said, the smile still on his face. I paused, examining his expression.

"Come on, let's go back to the cliff," I said, going back in the same direction we came. "That's where Dad's gonna land the TARDIS."

Half an hour later, we were on the silver cliff above the lake again. I was laid on my front and Charlie was cross-legged next to me.

"So you grew up in Connecticut?" I was asking him.

"Yeah."

"With your parents?"

"Yes," Charlie replied. "Dad's a lecturer at Yale, and Mom works in an elementary school."

"Wow! So that's where you get your brains from," I said. Charlie chuckled slightly. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Yes, a brother and a sister. Both older than me."

"And what are their names?"

"Why?"

"Just curious."

"Tommy and Amanda."

"They sound nice."

"Yeah," Charlie murmured. "They all think I'm dead." I blinked.

"What?"

"After the Daleks, I was put on the list of the dead. I never came home, so everyone assumed I was killed at UNIT."

"You haven't contacted them? Let them know that you're OK, somehow?"

"It's too dangerous."

"What if I went to them? That would be OK, right?" Charlie was staring at me with little expression, and I didn't think he knew what to say. Before either of us could continue, I heard the familiar wheeze of the TARDIS behind us, and a heavy breeze picked up for a few seconds.

"Come on, you two!" Dad's voice rang across. It didn't sound like him, though. The tone was different, it was… arrogant. I didn't like it. I turned around and caught a glimpse of Dad's face before he disappeared behind the TARDIS doors again.

"Sorry, Charlie," I sighed. "We'd better leave."

"Yeah." He agreed. We got up slowly and made our way into the TARDIS, and as soon as the doors closed, Dad set off.

"All right, give us a chance, Dad!" I exclaimed. As I strolled towards the console, I saw three humans and a little robot stood terrified together at the edge of the room. "Who's this?"

"Oh, this is Jenny, my daughter, and her friend, Charlie," Dad said to the group. "Jen, Charlie, this is Captain Adelaide Brooke, Yuri Kerenski, and Mia Bennett."

"Hello." We smiled simultaneously. I'd heard those names before…

"Just going to drop them home, back on Earth, then we'll be on our way. OK?" Dad continued, flicking switches and watching the monitor. Where had Dad been? He couldn't have picked anyone up from Mars. It was deserted. Unless…

"Wait a minute," I mumbled. "Adelaide Brooke? _Captain _Adelaide Brooke?" My eyes widened as I looked at Dad. What the hell had he done?

"Now, Jen, calm down," he replied indifferently. "I'll explain everything later, after the Captain and her crew here are nice and comfy back at home."

"But-"

"Later!" He snapped. I closed my mouth in shock. Dad had never spoken to me like that before, not even on Messaline. It was the same tone he used when talking to his enemies. I stepped away from the console and felt Charlie right by my side. At that moment, I was ecstatic that I'd invited him along in the TARDIS. I didn't know how I would react to Dad acting like that if I was on my own with him.

A minute later, everyone had stepped outside on to an Earth street. It was dark, and snow was falling lightly. The floor and the roofs on the houses had fine layers of the white flakes on top of them.

"Isn't anyone going to thank me?" Dad said to the bewildered group of humans with a smug, almost obnoxious, smirk. The robot made a high-pitched noise and lowered, seemingly dead, on the snow.

"He's lost his signal," Dad stated. "Doesn't know where he is." Charlie glanced at me with worry.

"That's my house." Adelaide said blankly, indicating one of the doors on the large white building opposite.

"Don't you get it?" Dad exclaimed. "Oh, Jen, explain to her."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Dad." I stuttered, and he looked at me with an expression of frustration. What was wrong with him?

"Adelaide, this is the 21st of November 2059. It's the same day on Earth," He explained, turning back to the people who should have been dead. "And it's snowing! I love snow!" 21st of November 2059. The day that Captain Adelaide Brooke should have died on Mars, sparking the inspiration of her granddaughter, and in turn the future of the human race. It was a fixed point in time!

"What is that thing?" Mia Bennett suddenly exclaimed. Her eyes were wide and she was pointing fearfully at the TARDIS. "It's bigger. I mean, it's bigger on the inside. Who the hell are you?" And with that, she ran away into the night. I looked up at Dad. What had he done to these people? To time?

"Look after her." Adelaide muttered to Yuri.

"Yes, ma'am." He replied, and ran off after Mia. Adelaide turned back to Dad with a steely glare.

"You saved us." She said.

"Just think though," Dad started. "Your daughter, and your daughter's daughter, you can see them again. Family reunion!" The way he put it sounded nice, but the issue was with specifically who he had saved. Her death would change history.

"But I'm supposed to be dead." Adelaide retorted, echoing my thoughts.

"Not anymore." Dad replied with that horrible smirk.

"But Susie, my granddaughter," She argued. "The person she's supposed to become might never exist now."

"Nah!" Dad shouted, making me jump. I'd never seen him like this. He was unpredictable. "Captain Adelaide can inspire her face to face. Different details, but the story's the same."

"You can't know that! And if my family changes, the whole of history could change. The future of the human race. No one should have that much power."

"Tough." Dad snapped, causing me to step back in shock and grab Charlie's hand. What had happened to him while we were on Kataa Floko?

"You should have left us there." Adelaide said calmly.

"Adelaide, I've done this sort of thing before," Dad began haughtily. "In small ways, saved some little people, but never someone as important as you. Oh, I'm good!"

"Little people?" I barked, and Dad frowned with dark eyes. "Little people like Charlie and me? Luke and Rani and Clyde? Rose? Donna?" I paused, and thought I could see a hint of guilt flash across his face. If it was there, it left quickly. "What's happened to you, Dad?"

"I've realised, Jen," he said. "For a long time now, I thought I was just a survivor, but I'm not. I'm the winner." A shiver ran through my hearts. "That's who I am. That's your father. The Time Lord Victorious." He was staring at me intently, right into my eyes, and I hated it. I hated who he was being. Time Lord Victorious? When I first met him on Messaline, that was the exact opposite of what he stood for, what he represented. How had he changed so much since then? I shook my head, wanting everything to stop, and rushed back inside the TARDIS before tears erupted from my eyes. I sprinted through the console room, down the corridors, past Dad's room, and into mine. I slammed the door behind me and breathed deeply, trying to stop the sobs from bursting. How had we gone from having a brilliant time on Kataa Floko, just fifteen minutes ago, to this? Changing history? Altering people's lives? I threw myself on to my bed, unable to stop the tears, and submerged my head into the pillow. I laid there for half a minute, then there was an anxious knock on the door. I ignored it.

"Jenny? It's Charlie." A muffled voice said from outside. I raised my head slightly.

"Charlie?" I mumbled.

"Yeah, it's me." He replied sadly. Suddenly, I really wanted him with me. I didn't want to be alone, so I got up and opened the door a crack. He was stood close, and poked his head around until I opened it fully. His hands were tangled together, as if he'd been thinking worriedly for a while. His face was full of concern and sympathy, but he didn't say anything, and I could see him examining my tear-stained face. He swallowed.

"Are you OK?" He whispered. His question kicked off a new bout of tears, and I instinctively buried my face into his shirt. I sensed his arms dangling indecisively by his sides, and after a few seconds, they tentatively wrapped themselves around me. It felt warm and safe, and that calmed my cries to dampened sniffles.

Charlie and me were sat comfortably on my bed, his right arm awkwardly resting around my waist. We had felt the TARDIS take off a while ago, so assumed that Dad was back inside, too. Even if he wasn't, and the engines had started themselves, I didn't really care at that moment.

"You know, I think this is the longest length of time you've not said anything since I met you." Charlie giggled.

"And I think that's the longest sentence you've said since I met you." I replied, chuckling at the both of us. Suddenly, there was another knock at the door. This one was louder and faster. I sighed, got up from the bed, walked reluctantly across the room and hesitated before opening the door. On the other side, Dad was stood forlornly with regret and sorrow spread all over his face.

"Look who it is, Charlie," I muttered sarcastically. "The Time Lord Victorious."

"Jenny," Dad whispered. "Please." I looked into his eyes, and they were tired, but all of the previous darkness had vanished. The TARDIS made a noise, and felt her nudging in my head. She was telling me to help him, my Dad, her thief. I nodded.

"I'll leave you two alone." Charlie said abruptly, jumping to his feet and rushing out of the room quickly.

"Charlie," I murmured, grasping his sleeve as he brushed past. "Thank you." He smiled at me, glanced at Dad, then made his way down the TARDIS corridor towards his own room. I looked back at Dad.

"Come on, let me show you something." He said, walking away down the corridor opposite Charlie's. I followed him – warily – for a couple of minutes, staring at my feet the entire time, so I didn't really know which halls we took. Dad stopped outside an ornate door made of dark burgundy wood, and pushed it open. He nodded for me to go inside first, and I was greeted by a dark, yet beautiful, room illuminated by a welcoming log fire. There were books on shelves across every wall, and a big warm rug laid in front of the fireplace. I hadn't seen a room so homely in the TARDIS before.

"Wow." I breathed as Dad shut the door behind us, and sat cross-legged on the rug.

"You like it?" He asked nervously. I nodded, and joined him on the floor, sitting opposite.

"What was all that about, Dad?" I asked him quietly after a few seconds.

"I went too far, Jen," he replied in a whisper. "I'm so sorry." His voice wavered as he spoke.

"Time Lord Victorious?" I spat.

"Ridiculous," he replied. "It's gone, I promise," he rubbed his hands over his face and cleared his strained voice. "I won't do that to you again." I smiled slightly. It would take a bit longer to completely forgive him, but I was glad that he was back to normal.

"I love you, Dad." I said. He looked up fast and gave a half grin. We both swallowed and cleared our throats awkwardly, then continued talking for several hours, happy in each other's company.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Probably not the chapter that you were expecting from the title, but it's a little more creative I think :) Thank you to .12 for the lovely review last chapter! Please let me know what you think of Charlie so far as he's my own creation so I don't want to write him wrong... Read & Review! xx**


	14. Running

_Dad landed the TARDIS lightly, still wearing his Stetson and the lei around his neck._

_"Oodsphere!" He exclaimed, pulling up the handbrake with an exaggerated wave of his hand. "Haven't been here in a while, last time was with-" _

_"With who, Dad?" I asked._

_"Oh, doesn't matter," he muttered, his eyes focused on the console still. "Allons-y!" Picking up his trench coat on the way, Dad scooted across the TARDIS and out of the doors. _

_"Come on then!" I grinned at Charlie, who had a pair of sunglasses on his head and his own lei still around his neck. He smiled back at me, something that had become easier for him to do as we got to know each other better, and followed Dad out of the doors._

_The scenery outside was simply breath-taking: snow covered ground, blue and white sky, a fantastic stone city built in front of us._

_"Ah! Now, sorry. There you are," Dad started, talking to the Ood Sigma a few feet away. "So, where were we? I was summoned, wasn't I? An Ood in the snow, calling to me. Well, we didn't exactly come straight here, did we?" _

_"Nope, sorry." I nodded. _

_"Had a bit of fun, you know," Dad continued. "Travelled about, did this and that. Got into trouble, you know us. It was brilliant! We saw the Phosphorus Carousel of the Great Magellan Gestadt…"_

"Hey! Have this!" A man exclaimed happily as we walked past, throwing us three flowery leis.

"Thank you!" I grinned back as Dad enthusiastically put one on each of us.

"The Great Magellan Gestadt!" He said loudly, stretching out his arms. "And only twice in the whole planet's history, did the Phosphorus Carousel occur!"

"What is the Phosphorus Carousel?" Charlie asked him.

"A natural light show, Charlie," Dad explained. "Spectacular, it is. I was there the first time, never seen anything like it." We were strolling amongst a huge crowd of people, all walking down to the best viewing point of the sky. Stalls were set up along the sides where things were being sold, leis were being handed out, food cooked…

"Hat, sir?" A girl said, stopping us in our tracks and holding out a stetson.

"Brilliant!" Dad exclaimed, putting it on his head. "How do I look?"

"Wonderful, Dad." I grinned as Charlie chuckled.

"I'll take it, then!" He said to the girl, and handed her a few coins.

A little later, we had found a perfect spot on the grass and sat down, ready for the lights in the sky above us.

"How long now, Dad?" I asked impatiently.

"About, oh… two minutes." He replied, holding up his finger to the air.

"Finally!" I sighed, and laid on my back, Dad and Charlie either side of me. They both followed my lead and leant back too, Dad declaring that it was a flawless view. Suddenly, a tiny white light appeared in the centre of the sky, spinning fast, round and round, in a circle. It grew larger as it rotated, and more small circles detached themselves into green and yellow lights. Eventually, the entire night sky was full with spinning circles, illuminating the planet. I had to put on the sunglasses that Dad ordered us to take, and I realised why at that point. I reached either side of me and held my boys' hands, Charlie entwining his fingers through mine in awe, and Dad excitedly gripping my palm. We stayed still in that position for the whole show, and when it was over, we looked at each other with the biggest smiles that any of us ever had.

_"…saved a planet from the Red Carnivorous Maw…"_

"What's it called, Doctor? This planet?" Charlie asked as we strolled along a cream coloured path, clear blue sea on one side and swamp on the other.

"Flane," Dad replied. "Home to a humanoid race known as the Flamans. Look like you lot, except they've all got blue hair and white eyes."

"What year?" I added as I jumped ahead of the boys, hopping from one paving slab to the next.

"6814. Careful, Jen!" Dad replied, grabbing my arm as the slab I'd landed on slipped a little.

"I'm fine, Dad!" I retorted.

"Could've fooled me." He muttered with a mischievous grin.

"I'm not a child!" I said.

"You are compared to me and Charlie boy."

Before I had the chance to retaliate, a fiery ball of metal spaceship shot overhead, almost singing the top of Dad's spiky hair. We stopped in surprise and watched the ship descend on to the planet, burning up as it fell. It was heading straight for the city in front of us, but we couldn't do anything to stop it hurting either the citizens of Flane or whoever was on the ship. Not at that moment. The fiery ship soared between two glass buildings and over a busy pathway, the blue-haired people below it running and screaming.

"Come on!" Dad yelled.

By the time we'd reached the city, creatures had already clambered out of their ship, and I had never seen anything like it. They were tall and beastly, with horns growing out of their heads and down their four legs. They weren't civilised. They looked a little like lions, the ones on Earth that we saw on safari, but shaven, and underneath their skin was crimson. Each was snarling and roaring at the terrified Flamans still in the city, and I knew that there was no way that we would get them back on the ship alone. We needed a proper plan to sort that problem. Suddenly, one reared on its hind legs directly in front of us and howled. Dad stepped backwards and stretched his arms out in front of me, his coat billowing in the heavy breathing from the creature's nostrils. It thundered back down to the ground, its front legs causing a rumble through the earth as they hit the floor. We were stood right in front of its face, and its eyes were glowing a fierce yellow. I felt Charlie scrambling for my hand, and I gripped his in return. There was a pause as we made eye contact with the creature. There was a low grumble rolling in its throat, ready to be let loose at any moment.

"Oh, you are beautiful!" Dad exclaimed, leaning in to examine its face closer.

"Dad, no!" I screamed, pulling him back by the arm as the creature roared at colossal volume and began to charge. We immediately turned and bolted, the red beast hurtling along behind us. We ran through the buildings, down the pathway, dodging parts of the ship that had been blown off and scattered as it crashed. Suddenly I spotted a Flaman poking his head from behind an alley, beckoning for us to go towards him.

"There!" I shrieked, pointing him out to Dad. We changed our direction and began running towards him, the creature still on our tail. I heard a cry from behind us, and glanced over my shoulder. Charlie was sprawled on the floor, his shoes failing to regain any grip to stand again. The creature was very close to him, and Charlie couldn't get up.

"Charlie!" I screamed, stopping in my tracks and turning back, but Dad grabbed my arm before I could move. The creature had slowed and was focused on Charlie, sniffing the ground as it sloped over to him.

"No, Charlie!" I repeated, trying to get out of Dad's grip.

"Jen, let me!" He shouted. "I'm not about to lose you." He started towards Charlie, about to save him himself. The creature was gaining on them; I couldn't lose either, let alone both!

"Dad!" I yelled, rushing forwards and pulling him back that time. Neither of us would let the other near the creature, and we were both as stubborn as each other. The creature was sniffing Charlie's feet.

"In here, quickly!" I heard the Flaman shout to us.

"We can't leave him, Dad!" I cried, gripping both his arms and looking into his face. Before he could answer, a blur of blue sprinted past us and towards the creature. We watched as the little Flaman with incredibly long hair dashed forwards and under its nose, just as it raised a paw to swipe at Charlie. I saw her grab him by the arms and pull him away, on to his feet. They were gone and by our side before the creature realised, and the girl had dragged us all into the alley in a blink of an eye. We carried on running between the buildings and through a door, where inside sat a small plain room with a few chairs, cupboards, a table and some sort of computer. The male Flaman slammed the door and locked it as soon as we were all inside.

"I thought we were gonna lose you." I sighed heavily, jumping up at Charlie and wrapping my arms tightly around his neck. I held on for half a minute, burying my face into his shirt and taking in his beautiful human scent.

"It' OK, Jen." He managed to stammer between deep breaths.

"Thank you," I heard Dad say to the two Flamans in the room. "What are your names?"

"I'm Edsel," the male replied as I let Charlie go. "And this is my little sister, Allison."

"Thank you, Allison. For saving this one." I smiled at the young girl, who couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen in human years. She had big bright eyes, contrasting her olive skin charmingly.

"That's OK," she replied cheerily. "And what are you called?"

"Oh, sorry!" Dad grinned. "I'm the Doctor, this is Jenny and Charlie."

"Where are you from?" Edsel asked us, slightly apprehensively. He had lighter skin than his sister and was a lot taller.

"Oh, all over the place." I replied.

"But what species are you?" Allison added.

"Charlie's human." I said. We paused.

"What about you two?" Edsel asked, pointing between Dad and me. We glanced at each other.

"Time Lord." Dad said dramatically, leaning back into the shadows of the room. Edsel and Allison looked at each other with confusion.

"But they're all dead, aren't they?" Allison asked. Dad paused, looking down at his feet and shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Nope, 'cause if that was true, we wouldn't be here, would we, Dad?" I replied.

"Guess not." He agreed, his lips letting out just a small hint of a smile.

"So, what are those creatures?" I asked, looking around the room. There were no windows.

"The Red Carnivorous Maw," Dad answered, leaping into action and examining the machine on the table. "A beautiful race, but violent. Animalistic. You don't want to get in the way of those claws."

"And they came here on purpose?"

"No," Edsel said suddenly. We turned to look at him. "They're of low intelligence. They couldn't fly a ship." He continued confidently.

"Very good, Edsel," Dad grinned. "No, the Maw couldn't have flown that ship-"

"Or crashed it." I added.

"-yes, or crashed it, Jen." Dad continued, wandering around the room.

"So something else had to be controlling it? There was another species on that ship?" Charlie asked, looking between Dad and me for confirmation.

"Correct, Charlie boy!" Dad exclaimed.

"Then where are they?" Allison asked. We all paused.

"Still on board."

"Well, we can't let the Maw wander through the city forever!" I exclaimed a little later. We were still in the tiny little room, discussing how to save Flane from the Red Carnivorous Maw. I quickly realised that if they weren't recaptured, although that was against both mine and Dad's morals, no Flamans would be left alive.

"We need to speak to their designated drivers." Dad said.

"So someone has to go to the ship?"

"Yes." He replied darkly.

"Well, it's a good thing you've got me," I smiled. Dad and Charlie looked up sharply, both their faces full of arguments.

"No." They said simultaneously.

"But-"

"I won't let you!"

"Jen, listen to your Dad."

"I'm a soldier," I retorted. "You've seen what I can do, Dad. Jumping through those lasers, out of the CyberKing's head…"

"We had no other choices." He argued.

"You need someone quick and agile. Charlie can't do it, he proved that outside," I turned to Charlie. "No offence."

"None taken." He smiled.

"And you can't with that great coat of yours and the suit you're too scared to get dirty." I continued, raising my eyebrows at Dad.

"Oi!"

"So let me do this. You know I can." He paused, frowning at me intently, thinking hard. _Come on, Dad. Give me this. You know I'll be in with a better chance than anyone else. _Eventually, he gave a short nod.

"Let me go with you." Allison said immediately, her high voice full of excitement.

"No, Allison!" Edsel snapped, holding her shoulders so that she was looking into his eyes.

"Why not? Jenny's going!" She argued.

"You're too young!"

"I'm not _that _much younger than her!"

"Actually, you're probably a bit older." I said, shrugging my shoulders. Dad shot me a look, and Edsel frowned slightly before continuing.

"Allison, I promised our parents that I would keep you safe." He whispered.

"I'll be fine. I'm fast." She replied confidently.

"Allison-"

"What if Jenny gets hurt? She'll need someone to help her." She interrupted her brother.

"And vice versa." I said loudly. I didn't want Allison to come with me for her own safety, but I had to admit, she had some good arguments. Evidently Edsel thought so too, because he simply sighed in defeat.

"OK. OK, Allison," he said. "But please don't put yourself in any unnecessary danger."

"I won't." The girl replied, rolling her eyes.

"OK, you two!" Dad said loudly, rummaging around in his coat pockets. "I want you to take this." He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and tossed it to me.

"Nice!" I exclaimed, walking to the door with it.

"Jen," Charlie said quietly, rushing over to me. "Please don't get hurt."

"I won't." I murmured, echoing Allison's words to her brother. He looked at me for a few more seconds before smiling his cute little smile.

"I know." He replied. I gave him a reassuring wink, and suddenly Allison was by my side, all ready to go. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"Excited?" I chuckled.

"Yes!" She laughed, and unlocked the door, skipping out into the alley.

"Hey," Dad said quietly, distracting me from following her. "Be careful."

"I will, Dad." I smiled, and stepped outside.

We peered out of the alley into the street. The ship was in the middle of the path, still in pieces. There were a few of the Red Carnivorous Maw around: one roaming at the far end of the city, another laid asleep a few metres away, and one which might have been a problem. That one was leaning against the ship, sniffing at it hungrily and grumbling.

"Easy!" Allison whispered, starting out into the city.

"Wait!" I hissed, grabbing her arm before she went too far. "Go steady, Allison." She smiled and turned back around, slowing to a creep past the sleeping Maw. I followed the girl, admiring her bravery as I sneaked behind her. The Maw grunted and rolled over as I tiptoed past its head, making me gasp and hop away slightly. It didn't wake. I breathed a sigh of relief, and kept going. Allison was a few feet ahead of me. She turned around and beckoned me closer, grinning with delight. I smiled back and crept forwards, joining her a few steps away from the ship. I watched the next Maw as it walked slowly around the crashed vehicle, its back to us. I spotted the entrance just to the right.

"Allison!" I whispered, pointing it out to her. She giggled quietly and tiptoed forwards, the Maw on the other side of the ship. We were just five steps away. Four, three, two, one.

"Yes!" Allison squealed as we reached the door. I reached into my pocket and pulled out Dad's screwdriver, pointing it at the lock. Suddenly, I heard an almighty roar as the device made its usual whirring sound. The Maw had heard it.

"Quick!" Allison exclaimed. I continued working on the door, determined to get inside before the Maw found us.

"Come on, come on…" I muttered to myself. I heard the lock click. "Yes!" I yanked the heavy metal door open and leapt inside, turning and pulling Allison up with me as the Maw began to stampede along the pathway. She pulled it shut behind her, and we were plunged into darkness.

"Jenny?" The girl said quietly.

"Hold on," I mumbled, fiddling with the settings on the screwdriver. "There you go!" The blue end of the device lit up brightly and illuminated the ship's interior. We stared around at the metallic room. The walls were black and had pipes and wires strewn in a maze all over them, the screwdriver's light giving them a more bluish tinge than they probably had. To our right, a large area was cordoned off by railings which were misshapen and knocked out of place, as though something had escaped from inside.

"So this is where the Maw came from." I sighed, walking closer to the empty cage.

"That's where they were kept?" Allison asked, sticking close to my side.

"Yeah," I replied. "Kept, imprisoned, kidnapped, enslaved… any of them, are you OK?" I frowned down at the girl, who was clutching my jacket and breathing heavily. She shook her head.

"You, Allison? The girl who saved my friend from a Maw literally under its nose?" I bent down to her eye level. "What are you afraid of?"

"I don't like the dark." She whispered after a few seconds.

"Oh, I see," I said. "Tell you what, keep hold of my hand. That way we won't lose each other in here, OK?"

"OK."

"Good," I smiled. "Now, there isn't any Maw left in here, I'm sure we would've woken them by now. So, must just be the designated drivers…" We started towards the other end of the ship, the screwdriver held out in front of me to light the way. A few paces down the corridor, we came to a small door. It was hanging injured from the wall by just one hinge, and I could tell it had been ripped off purposely. We stepped through the gap behind it, into a new room. This one was slightly brighter, the metal walls more silver than black. There were controls in a semi-circle all around the front, and two large chairs sat equally apart from each other, both facing forwards. I stepped closer to them, Allison still clinging to my free hand. I could hear my breath as I crept, and surprised myself at how scared I must have been. I didn't feel like it. We tiptoed to the front of the chairs, and I shut my eyes until we had stopped moving. Quickly, I reopened them, and was met with a tragic sight. Two people (humans, at a guess) were sat upright in the chairs. One man, one woman. But their skin was deathly white, their eyes open yet empty.

"Dead?" Allison breathed jaggedly.

"Dead." I confirmed sadly, and moved closer to them. I examined their uniforms, and noticed a logo on the man's shirt: Torchwood. That establishment must have gained more recognition, then, if they were moving threatening alien life forms from Earth in the 69th century.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled as I closed both their eyelids, and started back towards the door.

Allison knocked on the door down the alley four times. Edsel immediately pulled it open and gathered his little sister up in his arms, laughing happily that she was back safe.

"Thank you, Jenny." He smiled as I walked in after them.

"No problem, she was brilliant." I replied quietly. Dad and Charlie were talking seriously on the opposite side of the room, and both grinned when they saw me step inside.

"Welcome back," Dad chuckled, hugging me briefly. "So?"

"Well, we found the drivers." I sighed.

"And?"

"Human, Torchwood," I reeled off. "Dead, both of them." Dad's face fell dark, and Charlie looked shocked.

"There was a big cage at the back, wasn't there, Jenny?" Allison added, skipping across to join us.

"Yeah, a big broken cage. Where the Maw were being kept. Looks as though they escaped and killed the drivers, and that's why the ship crashed." I explained.

"What were those people doing with them?" Edsel asked fearfully.

"Removing the threat from Earth," Dad replied. "Not their fault, they were just protecting their planet." There was a momentary silence.

"So, what have you boys been up to in here?" I asked.

"Thinking of ways to stop the Maw." Charlie replied.

"Yep, and I think I've got a plan." Dad grinned.

"Is it an actual plan, or a plan-that-you-make-up-as-you-go-along plan?" I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Bit of both," he replied casually. "Now! Jen, Charlie, I need you two to go get the TARDIS. Move it down here, there's a zoo somewhere inside where we can keep the Maw until we find a new home for them."

"Sure." Charlie nodded as I caught the key that Dad threw over.

"Meanwhile, Allison, Edsel! You're with me. Let's round up those Maw!"

We'd managed to sneak past the Maw and out of the city without them noticing, mainly because they were roaming at the other end of the street. We were walking along the cream pavement again, but I wasn't hopping over the slabs this time.

"Are you enjoying yourself, Charlie?" I asked suddenly. He blinked.

"Yes, of course," He stammered. "Not here, I mean. Well, I guess here, it's beautiful, but not the… situation, I mean-"

"I know." I giggled as we reached the blue box. I unlocked the doors and pushed them open, the console rumbling happily to welcome us.

"Hello, girl," I smiled, and immediately started the engine. "Charlie, can you find the zoo?" I said as I twisted a control. "Think I saw it once near the crazy golf."

"Sure." He said, and wandered away down the corridors as I landed the TARDIS much more smoothly than Dad ever did.

"Hey, well done!" I exclaimed as I stepped out of the doors. "I see you've got the Maw rounded up." There were about a dozen of the red creatures asleep in one spot, and some Flamans had started creeping out of their hiding places. I grinned at Dad, but he didn't return it. His face was full of sorrow and regret.

"Dad?" I asked. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry, Jen," he said. "I'm so sorry."

"What happened?" I repeated.

"I got hit." I heard a weak voice say. I turned towards it, and spotted Allison laid in her brother's arms a few metres away. I ran over to her.

"What do you mean, you got hit?" I said as I reached her.

"The Maw, it swiped at her." Edsel explained tearfully.

"But you're going to be fine, right?" I asked desperately. "You'll be fine, Allison."

"Jenny," she smiled painfully. "No, I'm not."

"You are. You will be." I repeated through gritted teeth.

"Jenny." Dad said behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"No!" I exclaimed. "Do something, Dad!"

"I can't," he murmured. "I'm sorry, there's nothing anyone can do."

"Jenny," Allison said, reaching out her hand. I took it immediately. "I'm scared."

"Don't be scared, Allison," I whispered. "You're brave. You're the bravest girl I've ever met."

"Really?" She grimaced in pain, her voice becoming quieter.

"Absolutely," I smiled. "We'll never forget you."

"Promise?" She managed to splutter.

"Promise." I replied. Allison shuddered as she looked back at her brother, her breathing becoming more and more irregular.

"Goodbye, Edsel." She whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Say hello to mum and dad for me." He said quietly.

"I will." She managed to smile. She began to gasp quickly. It lasted only a few seconds, then her hand dropped from mine and her eyes went blank. Edsel sighed heavily and held his sister, sobbing uncontrollably into her hair.

_"…named a galaxy Allison…"_

After we dropped the Maw off on an uninhabited planet, Dad received a message on the psychic paper.

"'Her royal highness Queen Thema IV would like to invite the Doctor, Jenny and Charlie King to attend tea at Flane Palace.'" Dad read aloud.

"Sounds fun," I smiled. "Tea with the Queen!"

"Right then," Dad grinned. "Off we go!"

An hour later, we were sat drinking Flaman tea in the gardens of Flane Palace, Queen Thema IV creating cheerful conversation between the four of us.

"We want to thank you, Doctor," She smiled.

"Oh, it was our pleasure." Dad replied.

"We have a reward for you," the Queen continued. "We would like you to have the honour of naming our galaxy." Dad looked at us with an expression of surprise, excitement and absolute overwhelming.

"You've made him speechless, your majesty," I grinned. "Not many people can do that, well done!"

"Well, Doctor?" She smiled, looking hopefully up at him. He opened and closed his mouth several times, just a small croaking noise emitting as he came to terms with the honour he'd been granted. He turned and looked at us, a comfortable expression eventually dawning on his face.

"What do you think, Jen?" He said, giving me his half-smile.

"Yes," I grinned. "Charlie?"

"Absolutely." He agreed. Dad smiled cheesily turned back to Queen Thema.

"Your majesty," he started. "I name your beautiful, brilliant, brave galaxy Allison."

_"…Got married. That was a mistake. Good Queen Bess. And let me tell you, her nickname is no longer-" He swallowed. "Anyway, what do you want?"_


	15. The End of Time, Part 1

"Anyway, what do you want?"

"You should not have delayed." Ood Sigma said.

"The last time I was here you said my song would be ending soon," Dad replied, his tone getting more sombre. "And I'm in no hurry for that."

"Me neither." I mumbled. Charlie glanced down at me with sympathy.

"You will come with me." Ood Sigma stated.

"Hold on, better lock the TARDIS." Dad said with a hint of excitement in his voice. He turned back to the box, pointing out a key, and pressed a button. It made a beeping sound and a light flashed on it, causing Charlie to chuckle lightly.

"See? Like a car. I locked it like a car, like…It's funny, no? Little bit?" He said to the Ood, more and more disappointment in his voice as he kept talking. He turned to us at the end for approval, and I nodded sarcastically with my eyebrows raised. "Charlie likes it!" He exclaimed to no one in particular, noticing his grin. "Blimey, try to make an Ood laugh." We followed the Ood Sigma across the snow.

"When did you do that to the TARDIS?" I muttered to Dad, skipping to catch up with him a bit.

"I don't really remember," he replied indifferently. "So how old are you now, Ood Sigma? Ah!" We reached the edge of the snow, and across it was the Ood city close up. It was beautiful: twisted towers, naturally-growing bridges and everything embellished with icy stalactites.

"Magnificent!" Dad exclaimed, echoing my thoughts.

"Stunning," I agreed. Ood Sigma looked doubtful. "Honestly, it is."

"Splendid!" Dad smiled. "You've achieved all this in how long?"

"One hundred years." Ood Sigma answered, his white globe lighting up proudly as he spoke.

"That's fast." I commented.

"Way too fast, all of it," Dad nodded darkly. "Not just the city, I mean your ability to call me. Reaching all the way back to the twenty first century. Something's accelerating your species way beyond normal."

"And the mind of the Ood is troubled." Ood Sigma said. Charlie frowned at me with worry.

"Why, what's happened?"

"Every night, Doctor," Ood Sigma replied, a pained sound in his voice. "Every night. We have bad dreams."

"What do you mean, bad dreams?" I asked.

"We can show you. Come." He said, and turned away, leading us through the snow.

We entered a small cave, dark blue inside due to the lack of light. In the centre, a group of Ood were sat in a circle with several candles scattered amongst them, making them appear shrouded in a warm yellow glow.

"Sit with the Elder of the Ood and share the dreaming." Ood Sigma said, indicating one dressed in white with a slightly larger head than the rest.

"So, right. Hello." Dad said as we took seats in the circle, Charlie and me on either side of Dad.

"You will join. You will join. You will join." The Ood repeated as they turned to look at us. The one next to me held up its hand, and I took it, gripping Dad's the other side of me. I nodded to Charlie as he reluctantly touched the hand of the Ood on his left, and the circle was complete. As soon as full contact was made, an image flashed startlingly inside my head, blocking out everything else. It was a laughing man, just his face in a darkened room which was lit subtly with green light. An evil laugh, echoing through my mind and almost driving me insane, even though it only lasted a second.

"He comes to us every night. I think all the peoples of the universe dream of him now." The Elder Ood said as I got used to the cave surroundings again.

"I know him. I've seen his face." I muttered.

"That man is dead." Dad said with an air of desperate finality.

"There is more. Join us," the Elder Ood said, and a new image appeared in my head. Another man sat at a table, and another I recognised, but he was older and much more scared. "Events are taking shape. So many years ago, and yet changing the now. There is a man, so scared."

"Wilfred, is he alright?" Dad asked hurriedly. Donna's grandfather!

"What about Donna?" I added.

"Is she safe? Is Donna safe?" Dad continued.

"You should not have delayed, for the lines of convergence are being drawn across the Earth. Even now the king is in his counting house." An image of a dark-skinned man and woman being photographed outside a mansion flashed across my mind.

"I don't know who they are." Dad said quietly.

"And there is another. The most lonely of all, lost and forgotten." The image of a blonde woman sat cold in a dark prison cell appeared.

"The Master's wife." Dad said. Who was the Master?

"We see so much but understand little," Ood Sigma explained behind us. "The woman in the cage, who is she?"

"She was… it wasn't her fault, she was..." Dad spluttered. "The Master, he's a Time Lord, like me and Jenny. I can show you." The man appeared in my head again, but this time he was clean-shaven and had darker hair. "The Master took the name of Saxon," Dad narrated, and I silently concluded that the Master must be that man that kept creeping inside my mind. Another image flashed of the Master with the blonde woman, but she was wearing a long red dress. "He married a human, a woman called Lucy, and he corrupted her," The Master and Lucy were stood in front of a window watching the Earth. "She stood at his side while he conquered the Earth. I reversed everything he'd done so it never happened, but Lucy Saxon remembered," Lucy, in the red dress, holding a gun in her hand. Dad knelt on the floor, the Master laid across him. "I held him in my arms. I burnt his body," A fire in the background, Dad walking away from it. "The Master is dead."

"And yet, you did not see." The Elder Ood said, and more images appeared.

"What's that?" Dad wondered aloud as I saw a white-haired woman pick up a ring from the ground, the burning flames behind her. "Part of him survived. I have to go!" He tried to get to his feet, but the Ood stopped us from moving.

"But something more is happening, Doctor," The Elder Ood said. "The Master is part of a greater design, because a shadow is falling over creation. Something vast is stirring in the dark. The Ood have gained this power to see through time, because time is bleeding. Shapes of things once lost are moving through the veil, and these events from years ago threaten to destroy this future, and the present, and the past."

"What do you mean?"

"This is what we have seen, Doctor. The darkness heralds only one thing."

"The end of time itself." All the Ood finished in one whisper. Dad leapt up, pulling us with him, and we sprinted past the candles and out of the cave, through the snow back to the TARDIS.

"Dad! I don't understand," I said as soon as we were in the console room. "I've seen that man, the Master, before."

"What do you mean?" He replied as he hurried around the console.

"In my head, Dad. I think it was on Earth, with Torchwood," I explained uncertainly. Dad was frowning up at me every so often as he continued to fly the TARDIS. "When the Hub blew up, I was knocked out. And in my head, like a dream, I guess… I was in the TARDIS, and I was trying to find you. I saw loads of things… Daleks, Cybermen, people… and then he was there. Just staring at me."

"Why didn't you say anything before, Jenny?" Dad snapped.

"I didn't remember until now!" I retorted. The TARDIS landed roughly, and Dad flew across the room and out of the doors.

"Come on." Charlie said to me after a pause, and pulled me by the hand outside after Dad.

We'd returned to the TARDIS and landed the next day in what looked like a huge building site. There was gravel and stones and grit everywhere, the ground a natural grey. We had been wandering for a couple of minutes when we stopped on a mound of dirt. Dad inhaled deeply, and suddenly a loud echoing bang rang over the site. It repeated a further three times. Then again, the beats of four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. We ran immediately towards the sound, knowing it was the man we were looking for. Only he would be making that rhythm. "There!" I said, pointing across at a hill. The man that was stood on top shot into the sky, and Dad started running again. He tore so fast that even I struggled to keep up, let alone Charlie. We followed him until he stopped, and the Master's skeleton flashed blue in the distance.

"Please, let me help!" Dad yelled. "You're burning up your own life force!" The Master took off again, and we started to chase, when, as if from nowhere, a group of elderly humans came tottering up in front of us. The man leading them was Wilfred Mott.

"Oh my gosh, Doctor! You're a sight for sore eyes." He exclaimed.

"Out of our way!" Dad said, not really noticing who the man was.

"Hi Wilf." I smiled at Donna's grandfather apologetically.

"Hello sweetheart," he chuckled. "It's nice to see you, too!"

"Did we do it? Is that them?" I heard one of Wilf's friends ask.

"Tall and thin, big brown coat. Blonde ponytail." Another said.

"The Silver Cloak, it worked! Because Wilf phoned Netty who phoned June, and her sister lives opposite Broadfell, and she saw the police box, and her neighbour saw this man and woman heading east." A woman with white hair and a red coat explained.

"No?" I murmured to Dad as he turned back around.

"No," He confirmed, then looked at Wilf. "Wilfred?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you told them who I am? Or who Jenny is?" He said, his voice low. "You promised me."

"No, I just said you were a doctor and Jenny's your daughter, that's all," Wilf muttered in reply. "And might I say, sir, it is an honour to see you again." He gave Dad a small salute, and I giggled as Dad returned it.

"Oh, but you never said he was a looker!" The woman in the red coat exclaimed. "He's gorgeous. Take a photo! And with this one, too!" She pulled Dad and Charlie into the group, one ending up either side of her, and both of them displaying expressions of absolute terror. I folded my arms and watched next to Wilf, barely containing my laughter.

"Who's your friend?" He asked me.

"Charlie. Human, don't worry." I replied.

"I'm Minnie, Minnie the Menace," the woman said, looking up at them both. "It's a long time since I had a photo with one handsome man, let alone two."

"Just get off them," Wilf called. "Leave them alone, will you?"

"Hush, you old misery!" Minnie barked back. "Come on, Doctor. Give us a smile!" Dad reluctantly pulled his face into something that resembled a grin, making me snort loudly. "And you, my love!" Minnie said, giving her attention to Charlie once she'd got Dad sorted. He curved his lips slowly, the smile not reaching his eyes, which were still wide with horror. I almost doubled over laughing at the pair of them. "That's it!" Minnie said happily.

"Hold on, did it flash?" The man holding the camera asked.

"No, there's a blue light," Minnie shouted back. "Try again!"

"I'm all fingers and thumbs." He chuckled. I could tell Dad was getting agitated.

"We're really kind of busy, you know-" he started.

"Oh, it won't take a tick. Keep smiling!" Minnie replied.

"Is that your hand, Minnie?" Dad said, leaping up halfway through his sentence as Charlie simultaneously let out a yelp.

"Good boys." She smiled. Dad and Charlie finished having their photos taken with stunned expressions, and stumbled back over to me like they'd been traumatised once Minnie was satisfied.

"Enjoy?" I asked them with raised eyebrows, a laugh still playing on my lips. They looked at each other, confused.

"Um…" Dad wondered aloud, his voice very high.

"Right, come on then!" Wilf interrupted, starting to walk off of the site. "I need to talk to you, Doctor."

"Come on then, here we are! Hurry up," Wilf said as we stepped off the Silver Cloak's minibus. "Bye. You behave, bye." I waved as the minibus drove off.

"Over here, come on!" Wilf said, indicating a café across the road.

"What's so special about this place?" Dad asked.

"We passed sixteen cafes on the way." I added.

"Really? I counted fifteen." Dad replied.

"Ah, you obviously missed one, Dad." I giggled as we entered. It was an average place: not particularly cosy or warm, but neither dim nor dirty. We took a small table in the middle of the room, Charlie and Dad pulling up two more chairs.

"I'll get the coffee," Charlie offered before he sat down. "Eight sugars, Jen?"

"Yes please, genius." I laughed. Charlie grinned as he took the others' orders and walked to the counter.

"How are you, Wilf?" I asked.

"Not bad, sweetheart," He replied. "Getting on with it, you know."

"Don't miss him, then?" I grinned, nodding at Dad. I was trying to lead the conversation for him; I could tell his mind was still on the Master. He was worrying.

"Well, I don't miss the alien invasions, love," Wilf chuckled. "We had some good times, didn't we though, Doctor? I mean, all those ATMOS things, and planets in the sky, and me with that paint gun." He paused, thanking Charlie as he placed four mugs on the table. "I keep seeing things, Doctor. This face at night."

"You too?" I said, frowning. "What about you, Charlie?"

"No, I don't think so." He mumbled.

"Who are you?" Dad said suddenly, staring at Wilf with his arms crossed tightly over his chest.

"I'm Wilfred Mott." Wilf replied slightly indignantly.

"No," Dad breathed. "People have waited hundreds of years to find me and then you manage it in a few hours." Captain Jack Harkness flashed across my mind.

"Well, I'm just lucky I suppose." Wilf said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"No. We keep on meeting, Wilf. Over and over again like something's still connecting us." Dad argued expressionlessly.

"But how?" I asked. "If you two are linked, then it's not Wilf's fault. How would he know?"

"Exactly, Jen. It's something else," Dad sighed. We all paused, thinking about what he just suggested. I frowned across the table at Charlie, who was staring down at his coffee with what looked suspiciously like shame.

"I'm going to die." Dad said suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts. I gazed at him. Where did that come from?

"Well, so am I one day." Wilf replied.

"Don't you dare." Dad said, shaking his head.

"Alright, I'll try not to." Wilf chuckled. Dad didn't make any noise.

"But I was told," he said after a pause. "He will knock four times, and then…"

"But that doesn't mean you're going to die, Dad!" I exclaimed loudly, more to comfort myself. In all honesty, I'd forgotten about Carmen's prediction. Or rather, I'd pushed it to the back of my mind and refused to think of that possibility.

"My song is ending," Dad said calmly. "That was the prophecy."

"Yeah, but I thought, when I saw you before, you said your people could change, like, your whole body." Wilf stuttered, a sad frown on his face.

"I can still die. If I'm killed before regeneration, then I'm dead," Dad explained quietly. I felt my lip quiver at his words, and Charlie's warm hand squeezed mine in comfort. "Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away, and I'm dead." Why hadn't he talked to me about this before? Why didn't he tell me how he was feeling? I noticed Wilf's eyes flicker outside. "What?" Dad asked, and turned his head to follow Wilf's anxious look. I looked past his shoulder and the signs on the windows to see a woman with deep red hair standing outside a blue car: Donna Noble.

"I'm sorry, but I had to. Look, can't you make her better?" I heard Wilf mumble as I failed to break my gaze.

"Stop it." Dad snapped.

"No, but you're so clever!" Wilf said frantically. "Can't you bring her memory back? Look, just go to her now. Go on, just run across the street. Both of you, go up and say hello!"

"If she remembers us, her mind will burn, and she will die." Dad said, before we heard Donna's defiant voice ring across the street outside.

"Don't you touch this car!" I watched her point at a traffic warden accusingly as she spoke.

"She hasn't changed." I giggled, looking at Dad as he allowed a nervous smile to creep on to his face.

"Nah," Wilf agreed. A dark-skinned man joined Donna by the car, carrying numerous shopping bags. "Oh, there he is. Shaun Temple. They're engaged, getting married in the spring."

"Another wedding." Dad breathed.

"Yeah."

"Noble-Temple?" I grinned.

"Nah, she can't be called that," Dad added. "It sounds like a tourist spot."

"No, it's Temple-Noble." Wilf corrected.

"Right."

"Is she happy? Is he nice?" Dad asked, an expression of faraway longing in his voice.

"Yeah, he's sweet enough. He's a bit of a dreamer. Mind you, he's on minimum wage, she's earning tuppence, so all they can afford is a tiny little flat," Wilf replied. "And then sometimes I see this look on her face, like she's so sad, but she can't remember why."

"She's got him." Dad muttered, and I caught him glance quickly between Charlie and me.

"She's making do," Wilf replied matter-of-factly. "And look at you, Doctor. You've got your daughter and Charlie, there."

"Yeah," Dad sighed, looking at me with a smile. "They're brilliant."

"That we certainly are, eh genius?" I chuckled, winking at Charlie. He grinned in reply.

"I need them," Dad continued, turning his attention back to Wilf. "I dropped them off for a while, travelled alone. But I did some things. It went wrong. I hurt Jen-" His voice broke at the end of his sentence, tears momentarily forcing their way from his eyes. A lump caught in my throat as Dad covered his face with his hands, and I immediately reached for his arm to comfort him.

"Oh my word." Wilf spluttered. I glanced tensely at Charlie, who was covering his mouth and had a shocked frown above his eyes.

"It's OK, Dad." I whispered, leaning in closer, still gripping his arm. His fingers fell from his face, and he clutched my hand affectionately. He looked at me with watery eyes and a pout that was preventing any more tears from falling. I'd never seen him cry before.

"Merry Christmas." He chuckled weakly, facing Wilf again, but still holding my hand.

"Yeah, and you." Wilf replied with a slight laugh, sparking all of us to giggle nervously around the table, each with an audible lump of unshed tears in our throats.

By the evening, Dad, Charlie and me had left the café and walked back to the construction site. It was dark at this time, and the only lights around were the stars and the nearby homes of the city. We stumbled across the gravel in silence, occasionally helping each other when walking up mounds of stone and sand. The Master had to be there somewhere. He had made his face one of the most recognisable in the country by becoming the crazy Prime Minister, so he couldn't go into the city, and that site was where he appeared to have settled for the time being. Dad also said he could feel him there somewhere. He asked if I could, too, but nothing was coming to me yet. Apparently, since I was biologically Time Lord, but not technically a full one, I would probably have to be closer to another to feel them. We used this to know how far away the Master was. As we were ambling across a flat section of ground, a feeling came to me. It was like an extra sense, similar to the shivers I got when Jack was around. I stopped in my tracks and scanned the area, but I couldn't see the Master.

"Feel that, Jen?" Dad asked me quietly.

"Yeah," I breathed, still examining our surroundings. My eyes stopped on an abandoned warehouse. "In there." We walked hurriedly over to it, determined to find the hypnotic man.

"Wait here." Dad said just before we went inside.

"What?" I exclaimed.

"He can't see you, Jen," he explained. "If he even knows you exist, he will use you against me. I won't let that happen." I paused reluctantly before nodding. "Don't follow me, either of you." He finished, and turned back to the warehouse with his hands in his pockets. After a few seconds, we heard loud bolts of something sounding like electricity, and the glow of small fires near the entrance of the building appeared dimly. Without thinking, I immediately set off after Dad, but Charlie pulled me back.

"No, Jen!" He said sympathetically. "I'm sorry. Your Dad told us not to, for your safety."

"But he could be in danger!" I argued.

"And you'll be putting yourself in it too if you go in there." He said, a pained look in his eyes. He was right. Dad explained why I couldn't follow him, but it didn't change the fact that I desperately wanted to help him. I struggled internally for a minute, Charlie looking into my eyes with worry, before I gave a small nod and walked slowly away. He breathed a heavy sigh and sat down on a pile of gravel, tugging at the front of his blonde hair. I paced in front of him, waiting for Dad to return. I couldn't sit, I had to be doing something.

"If he is in trouble, how can we help him without the Master seeing us?" I started mumbling, voicing my thoughts aloud. "There must be a way. Come on, Jenny. You're a trained as a soldier, think! Come on! War tactics, think, think, think…" Charlie watched me silently as my fast, mental-sounding monologue continued. He had been extremely quiet all day. Well, he was naturally like that anyway, but he was _particularly _quiet. As if he was keeping something from me, or he knew more than he was letting on. Suddenly a white light shot high from the roof of the warehouse next to us, and a second later Dad came sprinting out.

"What happened?" I yelled, following him straight away and pulling Charlie with me. "What's going on?" We stopped in front of a hill made of grit, about ten feet high. Stood on top was a man dressed in a black hoody with white-blonde cropped hair. The Master.

"All these years you thought I was mad! King of the wasteland!" He screamed down at us. "But something is calling to me, Doctor. What is it? Wha-" He stopped halfway through his word, staring down. I felt his gaze scowling into me, and though I couldn't quite see his face through the dark, I knew there was a leering smirk there. Dad quickly looked around at me and his eyes widened. He stepped closer in front of me, just as a blinding white light shone down on us and a thunderous whirring helicopter lowered quickly above the Master and hovered there, ropes falling down to him within seconds. Two people dressed all in black tumbled acrobatically down and took the Time Lord by the arms, injecting one of them with something.

"Don't!" Dad shrieked over the noise as the Master was knocked out. They lifted him quickly into the air, taking him away just as we'd found him.

"No!" I yelled. Bullets were flying all around us as the men shot down, trying to keep us back.

"Let him go!" Dad shouted desperately. Time slowed down as I saw one of the men aim his gun at Dad, who had leapt forwards closer to the helicopter. A bullet burst from it and tore through the air, about to hit Dad. I didn't think about it. I just ran and jumped, straight in front of him. I felt the bullet rip through my jacket and then my skin, on my stomach. I fell to the ground as the helicopter flew off, and Dad turned me over to face him.

"Jen! Why did you do that?" He exclaimed, his eyes wide with fear. "I would've been fine!"

"I wanted to save my Dad." I whispered as I heard Charlie join us on the floor.

"Jen!" He cried.

"It's OK, Charlie." I smiled, and then my eyes closed.

When I opened them again, I was greeted with the interior of the TARDIS console room.

"Jen!" I heard Charlie say, and he rushed over, my vision filling with his panicked face. "I thought you were going to die!"

"Nah, not me," I grinned and sat up. "I'm a Time Lady, remember?" Dad was stood by the monitor, his arms folded and staring at me.

"Jenny," he started, and I couldn't tell whether he was going to be happy or angry. "Don't do that." I grinned at him cheekily, just as I felt a lump force its way up my throat and out of my mouth. The gold stuff wavered in the air for a few seconds before evaporating.

"Regeneration energy," I said. "Dad? Did seeing that explain anything? Why I look the same?" He frowned.

"No," he replied. "Just, don't die again." I chuckled lightly and got to my feet.

"So!" I began. "The Master. Where is he?"

"No idea," Dad replied, turning to the console and setting off the engine. "But we need to find Wilfred again. Somehow, he's linked to all this." The TARDIS landed with a slight knock, and we rushed outside. It was a street I'd seen before, but it was dark then. Donna's street, where we took her home. Dad strolled across the road and picked up a stone from the ground, throwing it at one of the top windows. I saw Wilf stand and look out, his eyes widening as he saw us stood there.

"He's coming." I said to Dad as he strolled back to the TARDIS. A few seconds later, Wilf came rushing out of the house.

"We lost him, Jenny died, had to get her back to the TARDIS," Dad started immediately. "He's still on Earth, I can smell him, but he's too far away."

"Listen, you can't park there! What if Donna sees it?" Wilf said. I didn't think about that until he said it.

"Actually, Dad, we'd better move quickly. He's right." I agreed.

"You're the only one, Wilf. The only connection I can think of. You're involved, if I could work out how. Tell me, have you seen anything? I don't know. Anything strange, anything odd?" Dad said distractedly.

"Well, there was a-" Wilf started.

"What?" I asked.

"What is it? Tell me." Dad added.

"Well, it was… No, it's nothing."

"It can't be nothing," I said. "Tell us, Wilf."

"Well, Donna was a bit strange," he replied. I heard Dad inhale sharply. "She had a funny little moment this morning, all because of that book."

"What book?"

"His name's Joshua Naismith." Wilf said, showing us the cover. It was a man, and I recognised him.

"That's the man." I heard Dad mutter.

"The one the Ood showed us?" Charlie asked.

"The one the what showed you?" Wilf exclaimed.

"The Ood." I said.

"What's the Ood?"

"They're just the Ood," Dad replied. "But it's all part of the convergence, maybe? It may be touching Donna's subconscious. Oh, she's still fighting for us, even now. The Doctor Donna." I smiled proudly. Suddenly, a new voice sounded across the road; one that was female and just a little bit whiney.

"Dad? What are you up to?" I looked up to see Sylvia Noble walking purposefully towards us, one of Donna's own outraged expressions on her face. "You! Get out of here!"

"Merry Christmas." Dad and me said simultaneously, both of us looking down at our feet.

"Merry Christmas," Sylvia replied a little sheepishly. "But she can't see you two! What if she remembers?"

"Mum, where are those tweezers?" I heard Donna call from inside the house.

"Go!" Sylvia ordered.

"We're going," Dad said quickly. "Jen, Charlie, come on!"

"Yeah, me too." Wilf added, turning to follow us inside the TARDIS.

"Oh no, you don't!" His daughter argued.

"Mum? Gramps?" I heard Donna call.

"Come on, quickly!" I said, stepping inside and pulling Charlie with me.

"Dad, I'm warning you!"

"Bye, see you later!"

"Stay right where you are!"

"You can't come with me." Dad said, stood inside, but with his head poking out.

"You're not leaving me with her."

"Dad!"

"Fair enough." Dad said, and he let Donna's grandfather inside.

"Where to?" I asked as Dad reached the console.

"Naismith Mansion." I helped start the engine and enter the destination, then turned around to see how Wilf was doing. He was gradually walking into the centre of the room, eyes gawping at the ceiling. Charlie was chuckling discreetly on the seats.

"Bigger on the inside, Wilf." I called over.

"Ah, yes," Dad said, suddenly remembering. "Do you like it?"

"I thought it would be cleaner." He replied.

"Cleaner?" I exclaimed.

"I could take you back home right now." Dad joked.

"So we're going to find Naismith?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, Charlie boy." Dad replied, pulling up a lever.

"And the Master will hopefully be nearby." I continued.

"Right." Charlie muttered, his face draining a little.

"Listen Doctor, if this is a time machine, that man you're chasing, the Master, why can't you just pop back to yesterday and catch him?" Wilf asked.

"I can't go back inside my own timeline, I have to stay relative to the Master within the causal nexus. Understand?"

"Not a word."

"Welcome aboard!" We grinned.

"Thank you." Wilf smiled. The TARDIS landed and I put on the handbrake. Charlie, Wilf and Dad had already stepped outside, and I could hear Wilf exclaiming: "We've moved! We've really moved!" I grinned and followed them into the stable-like area, Dad locking the door behind me.

"You should stay here, Wilfred." He said.

"Not bloody likely."

"Hey! We don't do swearing around here, thank you." I retorted. Apparently I'd managed to pick up one of Dad's traits so much that I was worse than him.

"You'll need someone to stay behind, though, right?" Charlie started nervously. "I mean, you don't want the Master finding the TARDIS. I'll stay with it, if you want."

"No, that's the last thing we need, him getting his hands on that," Dad agreed. "But don't worry, hold on," he pointed the key at the doors, and the box vanished. "Just a second out of sync. He won't find it like that, allons-y!"

A few minutes later, we'd found our way down to the basement of the mansion. A woman was working there around a load of computers and machinery. She looked human, but as I peeked around the stone wall, I could tell the technology was alien. Dad and Wilf were stood opposite Charlie and me, and I watched Dad get ready to make his entrance.

"And the multiple overshots have triplicated." I heard the woman say.

"Nice gate." Dad interrupted her, strolling around the corner with his hands in his pockets.

"Hello!" I added, following him into the room. The woman was staring at us, half shocked, half angry. "Don't try calling security, or we'll tell them you're wearing a shimmer."

"Because I don't know about you, Jen, but I reckon anyone wearing a shimmer doesn't want the shimmer to be noticed, or they wouldn't need a shimmer in the first place."

"I reckon you're right, Dad." I nodded.

"I'm sorry, what's a shimmer?" The woman asked. Dad pulled out the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at her, pressing the button for a second.

"Shimmer!" He said in a funny voice, which made me chuckle as the woman turned bright green with spikes all over her head.

"Oh my lord, she's a cactus!" Wilf exclaimed.

"I am not a cactus!" She snapped.

"She does look like one, though." Charlie whispered in my ear, and I had to stifle a loud laugh. Dad walked over to the computers and set to work.

"Charlie, you can help with this," he said, waving him over.

"Hey! Step away from the controls." The green woman ordered weakly.

"You won't stop them like that!" I giggled.

"He's got it working." Dad mumbled from the screen.

"But what is it?" Charlie asked him. Again, I got the feeling he _knew _what it was, but he couldn't. Although he was a genius, maybe he was figuring it out. Just like Dad.

"What are you doing here?" I heard a man exclaim behind me. I turned to see another human, seemingly, but he was the same as the woman. Dad didn't even look. He just pointed the screwdriver at him, yelling "Shimmer!" in the same jokey voice, and the man turned green.

"Now, tell me quickly, what's going on?" Dad asked before the man had time to react. "The Master, Harold Saxon, Skeletor, whatever you're calling him. What's he doing up there?"

"He's fixing the Gate," the green man started after a pause. "But I checked the readings, he's done good work! It's operational!"

"Who are you, though?" I asked them, my curiosity spilling over into my speech.

"I met someone like you," Dad said. "He was brilliant, but he was little and red."

"No, that's a Zocci." The woman replied with obvious annoyance.

"We're not Zocci, we're Vinvocci." The man added.

"Oh, completely different!" I said sarcastically, earning a delighted smirk from Dad.

"And the Gate is Vinvocci," the woman continued. "We're a salvage team. We picked up the signal when the humans reactivated it, and as soon as it's working, we can transport it to the ship."

"But what does it do?"

"Well, it mends. It's as simple as that," the man explained. "It's a medical device to repair the body. It makes people better."

"No, there's got to be more. Every single warning says the Master's going to do something colossal." Dad thought aloud.

"So that thing's like a sickbed, yeah?" Wilf asked the Vinvocci.

"More or less."

"Well, pardon me for asking, but why's it so big?"

"Good question, Wilf!" I grinned. "Why's it so big?"

"It doesn't just mend one person at a time." The woman said, as if it was obvious.

"That would be ridiculous." The man chuckled.

"It mends whole planets." She finished.

"It does what?" Dad asked, turning away from the computers.

"It transmits the medical template across the entire population." I shared a worried look with Dad for a fraction of a second, before we sprinted out of the basement and up to the main building, Charlie and Wilf following a few metres behind. We reached what looked like the main hall, where I could smell the Master inside.

"Turn the Gate off right now!" Dad bellowed as we burst through the large doors. Inside, the room was incredibly grand, but I didn't have time to take in any details.

"At arms!" One of the guards yelled, and all guns in the room were pointed in our direction.

"No no no no no!" Dad continued. "Whatever you do, just don't let him near that device!" Over his shoulder, I could see the Master tied in a white strait-jacket, and behind him, a huge machine glowing blue on the inside.

"Oh, like that was ever going to happen." The Master said, and somehow the strait-jacket was thrown off of his arms as if it did nothing whatsoever. He leapt up and flew near the ceiling, shots of energy bursting from his hands, and he came back down inside the Gate.

"Homeless, was I? Destitute and dying?" He shouted. "Well look at me now!"

"Deactivate it!" I screamed.

"All of you, turn the whole thing off!" Dad yelled. The Master did nothing but throw his head back in laughter; the same laughter he was terrorising Wilf with in his dreams. All of the humans in the room started shaking their heads, their eyes blinking.

"Get out of there!" Dad shouted to the Master. He pushed a bolt of energy out of his hand, which hit Dad and he fell to the floor.

"Dad!" I cried involuntarily and rushed over. Luckily, he was OK.

"Doctor! Doctor!" I heard suddenly. I looked up to see Charlie and Wilf stumbling into the hall, both blinking and flicking their heads like everyone else.

"Charlie!" I exclaimed, jumping up and over to him. "What is it? What can you see?"

"The Master, in my head." He stammered, his eyes unseeing.

"I can't turn it off!" I heard Dad shout, frustrated.

"That's because I locked it, idiot." The Master replied, and that made me angrier than I already was. For some reason, the thing that got me was anyone insulting my Dad. Whoever it was.

"He is not an idiot!" I hollered into the Master's smirking face.

"Jen, leave it," Dad called. "Wilfred! Get inside, get him out." I watched as Dad entered a glass cubicle on the other side of the hall. Wilf opened the other, letting out one of the workers. I saw them exchange a few words as I turned back to Charlie, still trying to brush the Master's image out of his mind.

"Charlie, Charlie. It's going to be OK, I promise." I said desperately.

"Fifty seconds and counting!" The Master shouted.

"To what?" I heard Dad yell back, and I turned to see that he had left the cubicle.

"Oh, you're going to love this." The Master replied.

"What is it? Hypnotism? Mind control? You're grafting your thoughts inside them, is that it?" Dad tried to guess.

"Oh, that's way too easy," the Master laughed. "No no no. They're not going to think like me, they're going to become me! And, zero!" I felt my eyes widen in fear as I turned back to Charlie, gripping his hands. His head started waving from side to side, and it quickly picked up speed until his beautiful face became a blur.

"No!" I cried. "Charlie!"

"Doctor?" I heard Wilf shout in panic, and I turned around, stepping away from Charlie. The shaking was too much. "She's starting to remember!" He said, holding up a phone. Donna. Dad stared at him helplessly. A couple of seconds later, the humans in the room stopped, and I looked at their faces in terror. Each and every one of them was the Master.

"What have you done?" I screamed.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you talking to me?" The original Master said sarcastically.

"Or to me?" Another one said.

"Or to me?" Repeated another.

"Or to me?"

"Or to us?"

"The human race was always your favourite, Doctor," the Time Lord said, walking across to join his new selves. "But now, there is no human race. There is only the Master race!"

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Part 1, done! Hopefully you enjoyed the last chapter, I thought it was a bit different.. and in case you were wondering, I didn't write a story for the Elizabeth I comment as *SPOILERS* I know she's going to be in the 50th anniversary, so that might be explained then :) Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon, certainly before next Wednesday.. and there may be a little shock in store... Read & Review! Particularly about Charlie, would love to know what you guys think of him xx**


	16. The End of Time, Part 2

"No! Get off me! No, let me go!" I screamed as several of the Master-guards wrenched my arms behind my back, earning themselves hard kicks in the legs. A couple of them buckled and loosened their grips, and I managed to wriggle free for a few seconds, only for more Masters to get involved.

"Jenny, no!" I heard Dad shout as I punched one of them in the face, another holding back my arm. I swung my free fist around, hitting several Masters as they ran to help neutralise me.

"Jen, stop!" There were four of them surrounding me: the one pulling my arm, another trying to clasp my feet together, and two more still struggling to stop my right arm from hitting them. Just as I threw my fist around for the tenth time, one of them caught me and immediately yanked it down to my side. The remaining Master pulled out a gun and placed it threateningly on the side of my head, his finger hovering over the trigger. Damn.

"Cuff her." I heard the original Master order, and I moved my eyes to find him. He was stood amongst the copies of himself who were once Naismith and his daughter, an extremely angry look in his eyes. I rolled my pupils around again as my hands were tied together. Dad was to my left, also tied up, but with only two Master-guards holding him down. Wilf had been pulled out of the glass cubicle and was being held by another guard.

"Take them to the study." The Master commanded. I let my eyes roam again as Dad was dragged away first. Masters were literally everywhere. Ones in helmets and black leather, ones in suits, ones in lab coats, ones in dresses… Everywhere I looked, I could see that face. It was like delving into a nightmare. I reluctantly turned my eyes to the right, to where the Master-Charlie would've been stood. As my eyes rolled, there were more copies wandering around. The guards around me started to pull towards the doors just as my eyes fell on what terrified me the most. Where Charlie was stood shaking his head from side to side minutes earlier, about to change into a Master clone like the rest of the human race, was just him.

_Charlie King hadn't changed._

He was stood rooted to the spot, awkwardly scratching his neck and looking around the room with wide, horrified eyes. No guards were holding him. Nobody was really taking any notice that he was there. I stared across at him as I was dragged away, unable to speak. He was still stood there when I was tugged through the doors.

"Now then, I've got a planet to run," the Master said. "Is everybody ready?"

"6,727,949,338 versions of us awaiting orders." Another said from a screen somewhere to my left. I had been tied to a chair by my waist, ankles and arms. Wilf sat next to me, also wrapped in rope, but his was only around his stomach. Apparently I deserved a more secure captivity after my display of kicks and punches.

"What have you done to Charlie?" I snapped at the Master.

"This is Washington," one on a screen interrupted. "As President of the United States, I can transfer all the United Nations protocols to you immediately, putting you in charge of all the Earth's defences."

"What have you done to Charlie?"

"UNIT HQ, Geneva reporting. All under your command, sir."

"What have you done to Charlie?"

"And this is the Central Military Commission here in Beijing, sir, with over two point five million soldiers, sir. Present arms!"

"What have you done to Charlie?"

"Enough soldiers and weapons to turn this planet into a warship," the Master said to Dad, ignoring me repeatedly. "Nothing to say, Doctor? What's that? Pardon? Sorry?" He had bound Dad into a tall straight-backed chair opposite Wilf and me, the straps pulled tight across his chest, legs, mouth and forehead.

"What have you done to Charlie?" I screamed for the fifth time. The Master turned around and glared.

"Quiet!" He hissed. "Listen to your Master!" I was about to make a witty reply, when a phone started to ring. I made eye contact with Dad, and I could see his confused frown underneath the straps.

"But that's a mobile." The Master said.

"Stating the obvious." I snorted as I turned my head to Wilf, whose eyes were wide with panic.

"It's mine, let me turn it off." The old man said with a falsely cheerful undertone.

"No no no no no, I don't think you understand," the Master continued. "Everybody on this planet is me. And I'm not phoning you, so who the hell is that?"

"It's nobody. I tell you, it's nothing. It's probably one of them ring back calls." Wilf tried to reason. The Master had strode across the room and was searching through Wilf's coat, pulling out his belongings, which included a revolver.

"Oh, and look at this!" The Master said loudly, showing it to Dad and me before turning back to Wilf. "Good man!" He tossed it over his shoulder casually and returned to rummaging in Wilf's pockets, finding the phone within a couple of seconds.

"Donna," he read from the screen. I felt myself take a sharp breath. "Who's Donna?"

"She's no one, just leave it!" Wilf replied, his voice displaying a tiny amount of dread. The Master pressed a button and put the phone to his ear.

"Who is she? Why didn't she change?" He asked angrily a few seconds later.

"The metacrisis," I breathed, realising what had happened. "She's not completely human, the template didn't affect her."

"Yeah, it was this thing the Doctor did. He did it to her." Wilf added.

"Oh, he loves playing with Earth girls!" The Master said with a groan of disgust. "Find her. Trace the call." He ordered one of his clones.

"But that still doesn't explain Charlie." I directed at the Master loudly. Again, he ignored me.

"Say goodbye to the freak, Granddad." He said to Wilf, putting the phone to his ear.

"Donna, get out of there!" Wilf shouted immediately. "Just get out of there! I'm telling you, run!" He paused. "Run, sweetheart, that's all. Run for your life!" Another pause. "Donna? What's happening? Are you still there?" I opened my mouth to shout similar encouragements, but stopped myself. Donna didn't know me. Even my voice in the background could have set her mind off.

"Look, I'm telling you to run, Donna! Just run, sweetheart! Just run!" Wilf continued. The Master was still holding the phone to his ear, but was staring smugly at Dad.

"Donna, don't think about that. Donna, my love, don't!" I looked at Dad fearfully, and he returned it with wide eyes.

"No, Master, please," I mumbled. "Stop it." He ignored me and glared at Dad.

"Donna, what was that? Donna? Donna, are you there? Donna? Donna! Donna!" Wilf cried. My hands were shaking under the rope, and I looked back at Dad. To my surprise, he was smiling. Why was he doing that? Donna must have been OK. But how? I frowned in query, and he winked at me.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, and grinned back at Dad. "Brilliant!"

"What?" The Master spat, and took long strides across the floor to Dad. He reached him in a second and ripped the strap off Dad's mouth.

"That's better, hello," Dad said. "But really, did you think I'd leave my best friend without a defence mechanism?"

"Doctor? What happened?" Wilf asked with a quivering voice.

"She's fine, Wilf, don't worry." I reassured him.

"She'll just sleep," Dad added and turned his eyes back to his old Time Lord colleague. "Now, answer Jenny's question."

"Jenny," the Master murmured disgustedly, as if my very existence greatly offended him. "You mean that _insult _to our heritage?" He raised his voice, pointing at me without even passing a glance.

"She's my daughter." Dad retorted calmly.

"She's a mere echo of us," the Master said, his voice whistling through the room. "She is nothing compared to the Time Lords of Gallifrey."

"She is brilliant," Dad continued, his voice a little louder and angrier than before. "Jenny would put the Time Lords of Gallifrey to shame." I smiled.

"Oh, would she now?" The Master yelled, making Wilf jump at his sudden increase in volume. He turned to me and stepped forwards, his finger still pointing at my chest, and stopped a few inches from my face. Up close, I could see the age and the damage in the faint lines around his eyes, and he smelt damp. "Would you, Jenny?"

"Get away from her!" I heard Dad bark at the Master.

"Dad told me about the war, and your idols. The Time Lord council in Gallifrey's final days," I whispered. "I certainly hope I'm better than they were."

"Prove it." The Master hissed. I paused, contemplating my answer, and glared at Dad's opposite. As every second passed, an arrogant smirk became more and more defined on his face.

"Why don't you wait and see," I smiled back. "Wait till we reset the Earth. Wait till we stop you. Wait till you're back where you were: wandering the wasteland, the gutters of London. The crazy Prime Minister. Then you'll know." The Master allowed a satisfied grin to spread across his face.

"I like you." he said darkly.

"It's not reciprocated," I snapped back, and heard Dad chuckle behind him. "Now, for the final time, what have you done to Charlie?"

"Oh!" The Master exclaimed, almost excitedly, and leapt away from me. "You'll love this, Doctor!"

"What is it?" Dad questioned loudly.

"Get Charlie," The Master ordered one of his clones. "You've always had companions, Doctor: Miss Martha Jones, good old immortal Captain Jack. The Brigadier. That pretty little American girl, what was her name? The boy in yellow. Now, meet mine!"

"What are you talking about?" I yelled as Charlie walked into the room, flanked by Masters, and his eyes fixed firmly on his shoes. The Master practically skipped to him and threw his arm around his shoulders. Charlie wasn't as tall as Dad, but there was still a marked height difference between him and the Master.

"Your _friend_,Jenny, Doctor. The American boy, the genius from UNIT! Innocent little Charlie King! Ha!"

"Charlie, what's he talking about?" I muttered, my voice shaking.

"Oh, she's not as good as you say, Doctor!" The Master laughed.

"Tell me! What's going on?" I screamed.

"Jen, I'm sorry." Dad said quietly from his strapped-in seat.

"Charlie?" I cried.

"I'm sorry, Jen." He mouthed through quiet sobs.

"He was never your companion!" The Master bellowed. "He was mine!" I stared disbelievingly at the blonde boy. He was still hanging his head down, his shoulders quivering every time the Master held his neck tighter, and I could tell he was crying. I desperately tried to come up with another solution in my head, another reason for him staying himself when every other human was the Master. Nothing presented itself.

"I needed a genius," the Master was saying to Dad. "A human genius to calculate the potion to bring me back to life."

"And you found Charlie." Dad said.

"I worked my consciousness into his head. I told him what I needed. Guided him, didn't I, Charlie boy?" The Master explained gleefully. I flinched as he called him the same as Dad did.

"And in return, you didn't change him." I stammered, not looking up at them.

"Used Charlie's DNA to omit him from the template." Dad said.

"What, so Charlie is on his side?" Wilf asked confusedly.

"Yes," I nodded, my voice breaking halfway through the word. I looked up at Charlie. "All this time, the whole time you've travelled with us, you knew this was going to happen?"

"Yeah." He nodded, not meeting my eyes.

"Oh, Jenny, he was brilliant, wasn't he?" The Master laughed, pulling him down by the neck and ruffling his hair messily.

"You were my best friend." I whispered as Charlie was let go and the Master walked back to the centre of the room. He met my gaze for the first time, and his eyes were wide with what appeared to be absolute grief. He opened and closed his mouth several times, then just reverted to staring at the floor.

"Now, tell me, Doctor. Where's your TARDIS?" The Master said loudly.

"You could be so wonderful." Dad breathed. His enemy sighed and slumped his shoulders like a child, instead turning around to face his 'companion'.

"Charlie, where is it?" He asked.

"Don't you dare, Charlie!" I snapped.

"You're a genius. You're stone cold brilliant, you are. I swear, you really are," Dad continued, still looking at the Master. "But you could be so much more. You could be beautiful. With a mind like that, we could travel the stars. It would be my honour. Because you don't need to own the universe, just see it. To have the privilege of seeing the whole of time and space. That's ownership enough."

"Would it stop then? The noise in my head?" The Master asked quietly, walking closer to Dad.

"We can help."

"I don't know what I'd be without that noise." He muttered.

"I wonder what I'd be, without you." Dad pondered in return, raising his eyebrows in thought.

"Yeah." The Master sighed.

"What noise is that?" Wilf called across the room.

"It began on Gallifrey, as children. Not that you'd call it childhood. More a line of duty. Eight years old. I was taken for initiation to stare into the Untempered Schism." The Master explained.

"What does that mean?"

"It's a gap in the fabric of reality. You can see into the Time Vortex itself," Dad replied. "And it hurts."

"They took me there in the dark. I looked into time, and I heard it calling to me. Drums. The never-ending drums." The Master continued.

"The drumming, in beats of four!" I suddenly realised, remembering the dream I had in Cardiff. "The heartbeat of a Time Lord."

"Listen to it, listen!" The Master hissed, almost like a madman.

"Then let's find it, you and me and Jenny." Dad offered.

"Except. Oh, oh, wait a minute! Oh, yes. Oh, that's good." He said suddenly, stepping backwards and stretching his arms out.

"What? What is?"

"The noise exists within my head, and now within six billion heads. Everyone on Earth can hear it. Imagine. Oh, oh yes." The Master said to himself. His skeleton flashed blue as he spoke, and he recoiled slightly in pain.

"The Gate wasn't enough." I realised.

"You're still dying." Dad added.

"This body was born out of death. All it can do is die," The Master replied, his breathing irregular. "But what did you say to me, Doctor, back in the wasteland? You said the end of time."

"I said something is returning. I was shown a prophecy. That's why I need your help." Dad corrected.

"What if I'm part of it? Don't you see?" He exclaimed. "The drumbeat is calling from so far away. From the end of time itself. And now it's been amplified six billion times. Triangulate all those signals, I could find its source."

"No!" I argued weakly.

"Oh, Doctor!" He shouted, ignoring me. "That was your prophecy. Me!" He rushed forwards instantly and threw his hand across Dad's face, slapping his cheek. I flinched.

"Where's the TARDIS?" He murmured.

"No, just stop. Just think." Dad tried.

"Kill them." The Master ordered, and one of the guards immediately walked over to Wilf and me, pointing a gun at each of our heads.

"Oh, not again. I'm gonna get used to this before long." I muttered to myself.

"I need that technology, Doctor," The Master said. "Tell me where it is, or your daughter and the old man are dead."

"Don't tell him!" Wilf and me shouted simultaneously.

"I'll kill them right now!"

"No!" I heard someone shout suddenly. I turned my head to see Charlie further forwards, staring frenziedly at the Master with both fear and determination. "Don't hurt her, please."

"Oh, don't tell me," the Master sighed. "You've got feelings now."

"Just, please," Charlie stammered. "Please don't kill Jenny."

"Charlie-" I started.

"No!" He yelled. "No, I won't let you hurt her!" The Master paused, scrutinising Charlie.

"Kill him, too." He said casually, and another guard pointed a gun at him.

"No!" I screamed.

"So, what do you think, Doctor?" The Master smirked, turning back to him. "I've got your daughter, her 'best friend', and the old man under fire." Dad paused.

"Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, you're still bone dead stupid." He said. The Master rolled his neck and sighed.

"Take aim."

"You've got six billion pairs of eyes, but you still can't see the obvious, can you?" I looked around the room, wondering what Dad had spotted that we hadn't yet. I grinned when I realised, and looked back at Dad.

"Like what?" The Master asked, sounding fed up.

"Jen, want to do the honours?" Dad smiled.

"My pleasure, Dad," I replied and sat up a little straighter. "These guards," I started, nodding towards the ones pointing the guns. "Are not the same height as you." The Master turned to the guard stood between Wilf and me, and he immediately rammed the butt of one of the guns into his face, knocking him out.

"That was brilliant!" I laughed as the Vinvocci removed his helmet to reveal his green spiky head.

"Oh my god, I hit him," he said. "I've never hit anyone in my life!"

"You have now," I grinned. "What was your name?"

"Rossiter." He replied as the other Vinvocci next to Charlie threw down the gun and removed her helmet.

"Well, come on!" She exclaimed. "We need to get out of here fast!" She and Charlie rushed over to us as Rossiter headed to Dad. Charlie stopped in front of me and paused.

"Come on, get me out of this rope!" I snapped. He leapt into action instantly, untying the knots at the back of the chair.

"Hurry up, come on!" I said through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, I'm sorry." Charlie muttered, unwrapping the rope from my stomach.

"God bless the cactuses!" Wilf chuckled as I spotted him stand up next to me and rush over to help unstrap Dad with the female Vinvocci.

"That's cacti!" Dad corrected.

"That's racist!" Rossiter added. I giggled as Charlie continued unknotting the ropes around me.

"This prophecy of yours, Doctor," I heard a Master start from another room. "Where did it come from? Doctor?" We all ignored it, but it did make us speed up. Charlie got rid of the last rope around me and I jumped up quickly as I heard the Vinvoccis arguing about Dad.

"Just wheel him!" I caught the female say, and Rossiter quickly rushed to the back of the chair and pushed Dad across the room, despite his and my protests. I followed them into the corridors with Wilf, trying to stop the two Vinvocci, but apparently they weren't prepared to listen.

"Which way?"

"This way!"

"No, we've got the TARDIS!" I yelled at them.

"The other way!" Dad said.

"I know what I'm doing!" The female argued.

"No no no, just listen to us!" Dad hollered, shaking the arms of his chair in frustration.

"Seriously, turn around!" I screamed as I reached Rossiter pushing Dad, and tried to undo some of the buckles on his arms as we moved.

"Not the stairs," Dad said sternly. I looked up and saw the Vinvocci woman nearly at the bottom of a flight of stone steps, and realised that we were at the top, about to tumble down. "Not the stairs!" Dad repeated. Rossiter had started wheeling him before I could pull the handles back, and the metal against stone made rather loud clashing sounds which echoed through the corridors.

"Worst. Rescue. Ever!" Dad shrieked with frustration as we hit the bottom and turned right. I giggled to myself as we entered the basement again with all the Vinvocci computers and equipment.

"Just, just stop and listen to me!" Dad shouted. Guards suddenly appeared on both sides underneath the stone arches, the Master himself stood with some behind us, which forced the Vinvocci to stop in their tracks.

"Gotcha." The Master smirked.

"You think so?" The woman said loudly, and pressed something on her wrist.

"No no no no, don't!" I heard Dad shout as we disappeared in a flash of light, the Master-guards and the basement setting vanishing from my sight.

A second later, I was faced with a metallic room with machinery and lots of windows, steps leading up to one large one with the Earth outside.

"Now get me out of this thing!" Dad ordered immediately and I jumped over to him, instantly working at undoing the straps on the chair. I glanced up to see Rossiter doing the same, as well as Charlie. So he'd been beamed up here, too. I didn't even notice him following us through the corridors.

"Don't say thanks, will you." The female Vinvocci said sarcastically.

"He's not going to let us go!" Dad replied. "Just hurry up and get me out!"

"Oh my goodness me, we're in space!" I heard Wilf exclaim from the window.

"Come on!" Dad grumbled.

"We're trying, Dad!" I replied.

"You're fine, Jen," he said. "It's that one." He nodded at the woman.

"All right!" She snapped.

"Get a move on!" Dad and me said simultaneously. We struggled with the buckles for a few more seconds, then finally Dad got out and stood up. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the teleport controls, zapping them out of action.

"Where's your flight deck?" He asked the Vinvocci hurriedly.

"But we're safe," the woman complained. "We're a hundred thousand miles above Earth."

"Yeah, and the Master's got every single missile on the planet." I argued.

"Ready to fire!" Dad finished, pronouncing each word with forced clarity. The woman paused.

"Good point." She and Rossiter turned and ran out of the room and I followed them quickly, Charlie next to me. I hoped he didn't think he was forgiven. That was gonna take an awful lot more than just telling the Master not to shoot us. We sprinted down dark corridors with steam emitting from pipes above our heads, and I could hear Dad catching up to us, Wilf panting a few steps behind him.

"We've got to close it down!" Dad yelled as we reached the flight deck. It was similar to the teleport room, except this one was larger and had more controls.

"No chance, mate," Rossiter said stood by a screen. "We're going home."

"We're just a salvage team. Local politics has got nothing to do with us," the female continued. "Not unless there's a carnival. Sooner we get back to Vinvocci space the better."

"We're not leaving." Dad retorted, turning around from the wall and pointing the screwdriver at the controls in front of the pair. The machinery immediately sparked and crashed, causing the entire Vinvocci ship to go dark and still.

"What-" Charlie started.

"Shut up!" I snapped before he could go any further. Dad shushed the both of us for a few seconds, waiting for any signs of the Master intervening.

"No sign of any missiles," the Vinvocci woman said, examining the broken technology. "No sign of anything. You've wrecked the place!"

"The engines are burnt out. All we've got is auxiliary lights-" Rossiter added.

"Better than nothing." I interrupted.

"But everything else is kaput," he continued. "We can't move. We're stuck in orbit."

"Thanks to you," the female said, turning to Dad. "You idiot!"

"Hey!" I barked at her. "If he does something, it's for a reason. We might be stuck, but the Master can't detect your ship now. He did that to save us." I paused. "Although if I were him, I might have left you behind." She glared at me for a couple of seconds before turning and stalking out of the room.

"I know you, though, Doctor," Wilf said nervously. "I bet you've got a plan, haven't you? Eh? Come on. You've always got a trick up your sleeve. Nice bit of the old Doctor flim-flam, sort of thing? Eh?" I looked at Dad. He was leant between two bits of console and staring forwards, his frown indicating that he didn't have anything.

"But the engines can be switched back, right, Dad?" I asked. He didn't reply, just glanced at me.

"Oh, blimey." Wilf sighed.

We'd stood on the flight deck for a few more minutes in silence. Rossiter left and followed his partner before any of us made an attempt to move. Eventually I took a deep breath and announced that I was going to explore the ship, see if I could find anything to help. I'd been wandering the corridors for ten minutes when I came to a small room, metallic like the others, with one window across the wall and a couple of steps leading down to it. I sighed and plonked myself down, watching the Earth through the glass.

"Jen?" A voice said quietly. I span my head around to face them. Charlie was stood by the entrance, rubbing his hands together nervously and looking at me with a scared frown.

"What do you want?" I spat, turning back to the window.

"I want to explain." He said.

"Well, I don't particularly want to listen, Charlie." I retorted lightly.

"It wasn't exactly like the Master said-" He started.

"Charlie, I don't want to hear it!" I barked, then paused. "What do you mean, not like he said?"

"Well," he said, and sat down next to me. I moved a couple of inches away. "What he said about needing a genius, that's true. He found me, somehow, when I was still at UNIT. He just got into my head. One day, I was at work, and suddenly his face appeared. I asked if anybody else had got it, but nobody had. I wasn't the most popular at UNIT, too quiet," he sighed. "I was the new kid, and I was better than most of the others in my department. They didn't like that, especially as I was younger than everyone. Anyway, because of that, everyone started ignoring me even more, and I went further into my shell. I didn't speak to anyone, I was living alone in the city, and the only contact I had was with this man in my mind." I shook my head.

"So you spoke to him? The alien who was talking to you telepathically, and you didn't think you were going mad?" I said.

"No," Charlie replied quietly. "I knew about aliens, obviously. And I knew about the Time Lords. The Master told me what he was and about Gallifrey. He was kind, I guess. Hypnotic. You know, a little weird, but I'd never met the Doctor before so I had nothing to compare to. I assumed all Time Lords were like that," he chuckled to himself. "Now I realise it was all to get me on his side. It wasn't until a few days before the Daleks that he told me about the potion. I started on it straight away, in the labs at work, and I literally finished it just as they invaded. I heard them smashing through the windows and the doors, I heard people screaming. I panicked. The Master was my only friend, so I took the potion and hid it in my coat. I ran then, to protect it. I ran straight through the corridors, and the only person who asked if I was OK was the medic, an English girl, I didn't know her name. She must have been killed." He gazed at the Earth, deep in thought. I watched him intently.

"That girl," I started. "Did she have dark skin, pretty? Dressed all in black?"

"Yeah," Charlie replied. "Did you know her?"

"Not did. I do," I smiled. "Martha Jones. Former companion to the Doctor. She's good, she's fine." Charlie smiled.

"Good," he said. "Anyway, I got out of UNIT and out of the city. The Master was telling me where to go. He told me to take the potion to London, there were a group of people there who knew what to do with it. I met them, it was an older woman, white hair. I handed it over, then that was me done. The Master spoke to me one last time. He told me who he really was, and about the Doctor. He told me what he was planning, and that there was nothing I could do to stop it. But he did say that he would thank me. I guess that not changing was my reward." He looked down at his hands. I wanted to believe him, but I was still unsure of whether to trust him. His story did seem to fit, though.

"So you were stuck in London," I said. "And that's when you met us."

"Yeah. I didn't know what to do, I was in shock I think," he replied. "I saw you at the bus stop, but I didn't know who you were. The Master never told me about you. I don't think he knew you existed. Then you got on the bus with your Dad, and we went through the wormhole, and you said you were the Doctor and his daughter," he smiled wistfully. "I was pleased and scared at the same time. Then you asked me to come with you, and I had nothing else to do, and I-"

"But you came with us, let us take you to wonderful places, see beautiful things," I interrupted in confusion. "Why didn't you tell us what you knew?"

"I was planning to," he said. I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. "No really, I was. But it was never the right time. The longer I stayed with you, the more I thought I couldn't say. After the incident on Mars, I realised I couldn't warn either of you of your future. It was too dangerous, so I guess I let everything unfold." I opened my mouth to reply, but I was stopped. A voice sounded through the ship: the Master's.

"A star fell from the sky," he said. "Don't you want to know where from? Because now it makes sense, Doctor. The whole of my life, my destiny. The star was a diamond. And the diamond, is a Whitepoint Star." I looked at Charlie with confusion.

"And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift," the Master continued. "Now the star is mine. I can use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor. This should be spectacular. Over and out." I leapt up immediately and ran back through the corridors. I had to find Dad. I didn't know what a Whitepoint Star was, I'd never heard of it, and Dad had never mentioned anything. But from the way the Master had spoken about it, I knew the Dad knew what it was and what it could do. Charlie and me reached the flight deck within a couple of minutes to find Dad rushing around the room, working on the equipment.

"But you said your people were dead. Past tense." Wilf said to Dad as he picked up a device from the floor.

"Dad?" I called. "What's a Whitepoint Star?"

"Something found only on Gallifrey, Jen," he explained quickly. "Which means-"

"We're in danger." I finished.

"Right," he nodded. "The Time Lords are dead inside the Time War, and the whole war was timelocked. Like sealed inside a bubble. It's not a bubble, but just think of a bubble. Nothing can get in or out of the timelock."

"Except something that was already there." I breathed.

"The signal!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Since he was a kid." Wilf added.

"If they can follow the signal…" I started, stepping towards the centre of the room. I looked worriedly at Dad.

"Yes, Jen. They can escape before they die." He finished.

"Well then, big reunion," Wilf exclaimed. "We'll have a party!"

"There will be no party." Dad snapped, still fiddling with controls.

"But I've heard you talk about your people like they're wonderful." Wilf said.

"That's how I choose to remember them," Dad explained. "The Time Lords of old. But then they went to war. An endless war, and like Jen said earlier, it changed them right to the core. You've seen my enemies, Wilf. The Time Lords are more dangerous than any of them."

"Time Lords, what Lords?" The female Vinvocci, who I realised was in the room just then, said. "Anyone want to explain?"

"Right, yes, you, this is a salvage ship, yes?" Dad said loudly, pointing at her. "You go trawling the asteroid fields for junk?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Ah! So you've got asteroid lasers!" I exclaimed happily.

"Exactly, Jen!" Dad grinned.

"Yeah, but they're all frazzled." Rossiter moaned. I saw Dad roll his eyes and stand up, flicking three levers enthusiastically.

"Consider them unfrazzled," He said. "Right, you there, what's your name?" Dad asked, pointing at the woman again.

"Addams."

"Right, Addams, we need you on navigation." I grinned.

"And you, get in the laser pod," Dad added, indicating Rossiter. "Wilfred?"

"Yeah?"

"Laser number two. The old soldier's got one more battle," He said with a low voice. Wilf rushed across to the second pod door and clambered in. "Charlie?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Third laser, off you go. Consider it payback." Dad ordered, and Charlie obediently climbed in one of the rear doors.

"This ship can't move, it's dead." Addams argued from the side of the room. I rolled my eyes.

"Fix the heating?" Dad replied sarcastically, and flipped a couple of levers forwards. The ship suddenly lit up again and I heard the engines spark.

"I knew we weren't stuck!" I laughed, and started to help Dad with the console.

"But now they can see us!" Addams yelled, exasperated.

"Oh, yes!" Dad and me grinned back. I heard her stomp towards us as Dad settled himself in front of the wheel.

"This is my ship, and you're not moving it. Step away from the wheel." She ordered.

"There's an old Earth saying, Captain," Dad started, staring out of the front window. "A phrase of great power and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need."

"What's that, then?" Addams sighed. Dad paused.

"Allons-y!" He pushed the wheel forwards and the ship hurtled down towards the Earth. I felt the outsides hit the atmosphere as Dad muttered "come on," to himself.

"You are blinking, flipping mad!" Addams cried.

"Charlie, Wilf! Get ready!" I shouted.

"For what?" I heard Rossiter call back.

"Missiles!" I replied. "You've got to fight off an entire planet, you three!" The ship continued to zoom down at lightning speed, and I spotted things coming towards us as we sped up.

"We've got incoming!" Addams said.

"You three, open fire!" Dad yelled at the boys in the pods as the ship skimmed the ocean, missiles pouring past us. I saw one of our pods retaliate and shoot down one of them.

"And there's more. Sixteen of them. Oh, and another sixteen." Addams complained.

"Get on the other rear gun laser, then!" I snapped.

"You three, open fire, now!" Dad yelled. He yanked the wheel around and I felt the ship twist violently to the side, dodging the hundreds of missiles in the sky. I was still helping with the controls, helping Dad fly, just like in the TARDIS. Everything was happening incredibly fast.

"Lock the navigation!" Dad said to Addams.

"Onto what?

"England. The Naismith mansion."

"Destination?"

"Fifty kliks and closing. We've locked on to the house. We are going to stop, though. Doctor? We are going to stop?" I looked at Dad. His face was locked in a frown of determination, and at that moment, I couldn't even tell what he was thinking.

"Boys, you can get out now if you want!" I shouted at the laser pods. Wilf instantly appeared out of his door and stumbled forwards. The ship was flying low over fields and houses.

"Doctor?" Wilf cried. "Doctor, you said you were going to die!"

"He said what?" Addams exclaimed.

"Shut up!" I snapped.

"But is that all of us?" Wilf continued. "I won't stop you, son, but is this it?" Dad didn't answer. Instead, he remained staring firmly out of the window, hands gripped to the wheel. Charlie was rushing over to me just as Dad pulled the ship up, at the last moment, and let go. Charlie fell slightly into my side, and I pushed him lightly out of the way to see Dad crouched by an open hatch in the floor, Wilf's revolver in his hand. He looked up at me with sorrow in his eyes.

"No, Dad." I whispered, shaking my head. I saw him take a visible breath, then he let himself fall through.

"No!" I screamed, and ran towards the hatch. Dad was just a small dot by then, and his body hit the centre of a glass dome on the roof of the Naismith mansion. He smashed through and disappeared, leaving me with absolutely no idea whether he was still alive or not.

"Jen, Jenny!" Charlie said, pulling me away from the hole and shutting it. "We'll find him, I promise." I looked up at his face. He was a new Charlie suddenly. His eyes were still and resolute, and I realised that of course he was telling me the truth earlier! I nodded and smiled, leaping to my feet and across to the wheel. Addams had taken control of it, and was turning away from the mansion.

"Just turn it round, land it!" Wilf barked at her.

"We are not going in there!" She retorted.

"You don't have to! Stay in your cosy little ship for all I care!" I shrieked, trying to pull the wheel away from her hands.

"We are not leaving that man on his own, not today!" Wilf continued.

"That's Jenny's father down there! Let us help him!" Charlie added.

"Land this thing!" I screamed. Addams paused.

"Fine!" She muttered, and turned the wheel back. In a couple of minutes, she had smoothly landed the ship right outside the house, and Charlie, Wilf and me jumped out instantly.

A minute later, we were sprinting down a grand corridor towards the Gate room, when humans started running out and past us.

"They've changed back!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Come on!" I yelled, pushing my way through the crowd and into the double doors. Inside, there was glass covering the tiled floor from the ceiling and the only people left were Dad (lying down, his arms just holding his body up to see, blood and cuts across his face), the Master (stood with his back to us), a technician hammering on the glass cubicle doors, and opposite, in a blaze of white, the Time Lord council from the last days of the war.

"Dad!" I screamed, running straight towards him.

"Jen," he spluttered as I reached him, lifting his hand up to my arm. "Wilf, don't. Don't!" He said suddenly, looking past my shoulder. I turned around and saw the old man switching places with the technician, who ran out of the room in a flurry.

"But this is fantastic, isn't it?" I heard the Master exclaim behind us. "The Time Lords restored."

"Didn't you listen to Jenny earlier? You weren't there in the final days of the war. You never saw what was born," Dad explained bitterly. "But if the timelock's broken, then everything's coming through: not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-have-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres. The war turned into Hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending!"

"My kind of world." The Master smirked.

"Just listen! Because even the Time Lords can't survive that!" Dad yelled.

"We will initiate the Final Sanction," the Time Lord in the centre of the council said. I could tell that it was Rassilon. "The end of time will come at my hand. The rupture will continue until it rips the Time Vortex apart."

"That's suicide!" The Master exclaimed.

"We will ascend to become creatures of consciousness alone. Free of these bodies, free of time and cause and effect, while creation itself ceases to be." Rassilon continued evilly. Dad turned his head to the Master.

"You see now? That's what they were planning in the final days of the war. I had to stop them."

"Then take me with you, Lord President!" The Master commanded, stretching his arms out. "Let me ascend into glory!"

"You are diseased," Rassilon hissed back, and although I hated the Master, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. "Albeit a disease of our own making. No more." He raised his arm, about to strike the dying Time Lord behind me, when Dad suddenly leapt to his feet and shoved me away gently. Charlie pulled me by the arm towards him, stood at the side of the room opposite the cubicles. I watched as Dad aimed the revolver at Rassilon.

"No, Dad!" I cried. "This isn't you!"

"It's OK, Jen, it's OK." Charlie whispered into my ear.

"Choose your enemy well. We are many, the Master is but one." Rassilon said to Dad.

"But he's the President!" The Master interjected. "Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours!" There was a brief pause before Dad twisted around to point the gun at his old enemy.

"He's to blame, not me!" The Master cried desperately. "Oh. The link is inside my head. Kill me, the link gets broken, they go back. You never would, you coward," I flinched in Charlie's arms. "Go on, then. Do it!" I saw Dad think for a second, then he turned back and pointed the gun at the long-dead Time Lords.

"Exactly!" The Master said, jumping at his opportunity. "It's not just me, it's him! He's the link, kill him!"

"The final act of your life is murder," Rassilon said calmly, his eyes glaring into Dad's. "But which one of us?" There was a long pause. I could hear my own hearts beating fast and my breathing heavy. Behind me, Charlie was doing the same. I watched with wide eyes as one of the council behind Rassilon lowered her hands from her eyes, revealing an older face. She was frowning at Dad, and quickly glanced between him and me once. Dad followed her gaze, looking at me then back at her. Then suddenly, he span around, back to the Master.

"Get out of the way." Dad murmured, and the Master jumped to the side. He pulled the trigger and the device sat behind the Master blew up with a loud crash.

"The link is broken! Back into the Time War, Rassilon! Back into Hell." Dad yelled bravely.

"I'll take your daughter with me, Doctor!" Rassilon shrieked back, and suddenly I felt a strong tug on my body. It got more and more difficult to fight and I clung to Charlie's hands, and in the background I could just hear his and Dad's terrified protests. Within seconds I was being held by the neck with Rassilon's red-covered arm, the Time Lords taking me back to Gallifrey with them.

"Dad!" I screamed. I was too terrified to think straight. How do I get out of this? Time slowed as I looked around, and one of the Time Lords, a young looking girl with brown hair, smiled and winked at me.

"Help me!" I cried again. I could still hear Dad screaming my name when I felt myself being pulled from Rassilon's grip. My neck suddenly felt a lot freer as I squeezed my eyes shut and sensed the rumbling of Gallifrey moving back to the Time War. My legs stumbled around for a few seconds as the sounds and the feeling of the Time Lords moved away rapidly. I heard the Master shouting something, but I couldn't make out what it was. Then a bright light appeared, attacking my closed eyelids, and I squeezed them shut even tighter.

The next second, I felt my body on the cold floor amongst shards of glass. I could hear Dad talking in the distance, but my ears weren't adjusted to my surroundings yet. As I took a deep breath, I heard him shout:

"What about Jenny? What about my daughter?" I slowly moved my head away from the ground and heard the tinkling of bits of glass falling from the side of my face.

"It's not fair!" Dad cried suddenly, and I could hear the tears in his voice. I opened my eyes to see Dad walking towards Wilf in one of the glass cubicles, the old man apparently protesting from the movement of his mouth and his expression. Dad opened the other door quickly and Wilf rushed out, a red light suddenly filling the glass box that Dad was inside.

"Dad, no!" I spluttered as I got up and stumbled over.

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry!" Wilf exclaimed as he noticed me awake. I grabbed his arm to steady myself and let out a cry.

"Dad!" I repeated as I watched his face contort in pain and his body curl into a ball on the floor. After a couple of seconds, the red light switched off and Dad was still.

"Dad?" I whispered. I stared at him until he moved his hand and sat up, frowning at Wilf and me tiredly.

"Hello." Wilf said.

"Hi." Dad replied, looking at the controls inside the cubicle.

"Still with us?" Wilf asked.

"The system's dead," Dad said, getting to his feet slowly. "I absorbed it all. Whole thing's kaput." He put his hand to the door and pushed, the glass opening easily. "Oh, now it opens, yeah." I breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped out.

"Wait a minute," I mumbled, looking around the empty room. "Where's Charlie?" Dad and Wilf looked at me sadly. "Dad, where is he?" I stepped closer to him. "Tell me!"

"He's gone," Dad sighed. "I'm sorry, Jen."

"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" I stammered.

"He pulled you from Rassilon, but got sucked in instead. I'm sorry, Jen. He went back to the Time War."

"What? No, we can go get him. We've got the TARDIS, we can save him!" I argued weakly, tears making their way to my eyes.

"We can't." Dad said quietly. I let out a wail and Dad pulled me into his arms gently, his suit soaking up my tears. I gripped his chest tightly for a minute as my cried died down, and I felt Wilf's hand pat my back softly.

"There there, sweetheart," he murmured. "At least you two are here, safe and sound. Mind you, Doctor, you're in hell of a state. You've got some battle scars there." I lifted my head away from Dad's jacket to look up at him wipe his hands down his face. The cuts and blood that were there previously vanished underneath his palms.

"But they've- your face," I heard Wilf splutter. "How did you do that?" I breathed heavily as I realised that I was going to lose both Charlie and my Dad.

"It's started." Dad said calmly, and wrapped his arm back around my shoulders. I buried my face in his chest again, like a child, and tried to comfort both him and myself for what was about to come.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: OK, so I lied :P sorry about the late update, this one took longer than I anticipated, but it is 8000 words :) The next update will be much quicker, I promise.. possibly even today or tomorrow. Read & Review! xx**


	17. Ten's Reward

The three of us returned to the TARDIS in silence, and once we were back in the familiar coral setting, Dad started the engines. I watched him set the coordinates to Donna and Wilf's street in a few minutes time as I slumped down on one of the seats. Everything about the console room was warm and welcoming to me, except there was something missing. Charlie. The box landed a couple of seconds later, and I sighed as I stood up to say goodbye to Wilf. Sylvia was stood by their front door when we stepped outside, a wide beam on her face and waving cheerily. At least someone was happy.

"Oh, she's smiling. As if today wasn't bad enough," Dad commented jokingly. I would have laughed if I could bring myself to. "Anyway, don't go thinking this is goodbye, Wilf. We'll see you again, one more time."

"What do you mean? When's that?" Wilf asked.

"Just keeping looking. We'll be there." Dad replied.

"Thank you, Wilf." I said with a weak smile, and stepped back inside the TARDIS.

"Bless you, sweetheart," I heard him say. "But where are you going?"

"To get my reward." Dad mumbled, and followed me back to the console, leaving Wilf back with his family.

A few minutes later, we were sneaking along a tall metal bridge in the year 2013. Over the side I could see a big area of wasteland, similar to the one we'd wandered around looking for the Master. Dad was next to me holding a wooden hammer, and in the middle of the bridge I spotted a Sontaran. It was pointing a gun into the site, and I looked across to see what was there. Behind a half-broken wall, there were two people, both wearing dark clothes and holding guns across their chests. I squinted at them, and realised that it was a man and a woman: Mickey Smith and Martha Jones. I turned back to the Sontaran and spotted Dad creeping up behind him. I kept low and watched from a few metres away. The Sontaran licked his lips with satisfaction, and a second later, Dad whacked his probic vent with the hammer and he fell to the floor. I smiled and walked over to join Dad, who was stood watching his friends with the hammer over his shoulder. I saw Martha nudge Mickey and they both turned their heads to look at us.

"Hey!" Mickey called. I looked up at Dad. He turned away and walked across the bridge. I took one more glimpse of the pair over the side before following him back to the TARDIS.

"Just need to get a wedding present," Dad said as he landed the TARDIS again. "Back in a tick."

"OK." I replied quietly as he grabbed his coat and walked out of the door. I sighed and walked over to the monitor, pulling it around to face me.

"Bannerman Road." I murmured as I read the coordinates. I switched the screen to the camera setting and an image of the street outside appeared. I watched it for a few minutes, all the while thinking about Dad and Charlie and Jack and Wilf and Ianto and Donna and the Master… and suddenly Dad appeared back on the monitor, strolling down the path to the TARDIS. I flicked my head up as I heard the doors open and saw the back of Dad's coat. He paused there, and I glanced back at the screen to see him raise his hand to someone I couldn't see. Sarah Jane Smith.

Dad landed the TARDIS and outside I could hear music. I looked at him.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Someone for both of us to see." He replied, and we stepped out. We walked down a red-lit corridor towards the noise, and came to an outer-space bar. It was filled with loads of different species: Graske, Raxacoricofallapatorians, humanoids, Adipose… And the drinks were flowing for everyone. Only one of our friends could have been here. I walked around to the other side of the bar and stopped next to the man in the big grey World War Two coat.

"Hello you." I said. Jack turned to me with a surprised expression.

"Jenny?"

"Captain."

"What are you doing here?" I nodded to Dad stood on the other side of the room.

"It's his reward." I replied simply. Jack looked at me sadly.

"Is he?" He asked, leaving his question unfinished. I took a deep breath.

"It wasn't your fault, Jack." I said, and passed him a piece of paper. The Captain frowned and took it. "It's from Dad." I stood up and walked back around the bar before Jack realised I'd moved. I watched him turn to where I was sat, his lips poised to ask me something. Instead, he looked past the barmen to Dad and me. I tilted my head up to see Dad nod over to a man sitting next to Jack, dressed in naval uniform. Jack saluted us, and we returned the gesture before walking back down the corridor to the TARDIS, leaving him to his business.

Next, Dad landed the TARDIS down an alley and we emerged on to a busy London street. I wondered who we were visiting that time as I followed him into an average-looking bookshop, a display on the window showing that they had a signing with Verity Newman that day. I joined the end of the queue with Dad, and he picked up a copy of the book. I read the title from underneath his fingers: 'A Journal of Impossible Things'. I waited patiently for half an hour, both of us stood in silence the whole time.

"Every word of it's true," I heard the author say to the man in front of us as we reached her table. "I found my great grandmother's diary in the loft, and she was a nurse in 1913, and she fell in love with this man called John Smith. Except he was a visitor from another world. She fell in love with a man from the stars, and she wrote it all down." I looked at Dad. He had such a vast history behind him, one that would take years to tell if I asked him. I'd heard some of his stories, of course, but they always seemed to be happy times. There was a lot he didn't tell me.

"And who's it for?" Verity asked as we got to the front and placed the book on the table. I heard Dad's voice catch in his throat slightly.

"The Doctor." I answered for him.

"To the Doctor," she said, writing in the title page. "Funny, that's the name he used." She looked up at us slowly.

"Was she happy in the end?" Dad asked quietly.

"Yes, yes she was," Verity replied hesitantly. "Were you?" Dad smiled at her tearfully. I took his hand, giving Verity a small nod, and we walked out of the shop.

"You're gonna change, aren't you?" I asked Dad. He continued fiddling with the TARDIS console, staring emptily down at it.

"The regeneration's already started. It's just a matter of time now." He said. I didn't reply. I didn't want him to change; this new guy wouldn't be my Dad. The wonderful, fiery hero stood solemnly opposite me was, and always would be, my only father.

"I don't want you to," I said eventually. Dad just looked blankly at me, so, with a deep breath, I continued, "I've already lost Charlie. I can't lose my Dad too."

"You won't lose your Dad, I'll still be here. I'll just be a bit different."

"But _you_ are my dad, not some new version. He won't come close, I know it." Dad's face was filled with sadness. He sighed heavily, and began to fly the TARDIS.

"Jenny," he said quietly. "I'm getting my reward. You deserve yours too."

The TARDIS landed smoothly, for once. I looked at Dad questioningly, and he nodded towards the front door. I walked towards it, wondering where he had brought me. I paused at the door, leaning my forehead against the wood and whispered, "Please be a miracle." I pulled the handles, and stepped out into a busy London street. It was getting dark, yet there were cars and motorbikes whizzing down the roads and people rushing about their last minute business. I scanned the pavements, which was when I spotted a lonely figure sat in a bus shelter. He was drumming his fingers on the metal seats and his slumped shoulders made him look as though he had lost all hope. I could only see the back of his head, which was covered with dirty blonde hair, so I walked closer. I continued to watch the man who had captured my attention, and stopped a few feet away from the bus shelter. I knew immediately that this was April 11th, 2009. The night we caught a London double decker to San Helios, and the night I met Charlie King.

I looked back at the TARDIS, and saw Dad stood awkwardly in the doorway. He gave me a small smile, a ghost of his former grin, and waved me on. I turned back to the forlorn man and walked confidently towards him, taking a seat at the other end of the shelter.

"You've got a while to wait." I said to Charlie a few seconds later. He turned his head and looked at me, into my eyes, and seemed a little afraid.

"Umm… Are you talkin' to me?" He said.

"Yeah," I replied. "Your bus isn't coming for a while yet."

"How… Sorry, have we met before?"

"Technically,"

"What do you mean?"

"Charlie King-"

"How do you know my name?"

"-go get some coffee or something, you've got around… Ooh, 43 minutes till your bus arrives," I said, checking my watch. "It's gonna be late."

I smiled, happy to be next to him again. He looked totally bewildered.

"I…I don't know, how… Coffee?"

"Yeah. Eight sugars please, if you're offering."

"What… Oh right, coffee, but… Who are you?"

"You'll see," I said, smiling. "But right now, coffee!"

Charlie was staring at me, clearly baffled by my sudden appearance. He was struggling to speak, and I knew he just didn't know how to react to me. Eventually, he managed, "Eight sugars?"

"Yeah, eight," I replied cheerily. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothin'," he said quickly, obviously trying not to offend the stranger next to him. My lips curled at the edges as I tried not to laugh at the poor boy's clueless expression. It was so good to see him, even if he had no idea who I was. I looked at him, at his boyish face which was bowed downwards, his dreamy blue eyes focused on his hands. His warm, safe hands. The hands I would never hold again. A lock of golden hair fell into his tired eyes, the hair that was so light and soft. He pushed it back again with a nervous glance towards me. He was trying not to notice my gaze, and was moving his eyes to anywhere but me. He licked his lips, and finally looked at my face.

"Are you-" he began, then stopped of his own accord. Charlie stared back at me, into my eyes. He gave me his beautiful genuine smile, and giggled sheepishly.

"What's so funny?" I asked in mock offence.

"I don't know," he said. "I just… Feel like I know you."

"Good. That's good, Charlie," I replied. "And you will know me." I stood up, sighing, and knowing this would be my last moment with the genius boy I loved. He looked up at me with confused eyes. My hand reached for his soft cheek, naturally, and I held my fingers next to his skin for a few seconds. Realising this would be my last chance, and seizing the opportunities I said I would take when I flew away from Messaline in that pod, I bent down towards Charlie's face, and pressed my lips to his. He didn't pull away, in fact, he responded passionately. I closed my eyes for a second, willing myself to remember this moment for the rest of my existence. Charlie was the one for me, and he was gone. I was going to live my life as he would have wanted: to the fullest, and never giving up. I broke away from his face, breathing in his scent for the very last time. I looked deep into his bright eyes.

"Coffee."

"Coffee," he repeated. I stood up straight, and turned to walk away, back to the TARDIS.

"Where are you going?" Charlie called after me. I was determined not to respond. After all, in only a short while he would see me again. I carried on walking.

"What's your name?" I heard him shout. Finally I reached the blue doors and pushed them open, looking back at Charlie for the last time. He was stood by the shelter, staring after me with a small grin forming on his lips. I smiled to myself, and closed the TARDIS doors.

"Goodbye, Charlie King."

A little later, Dad and me were stood outside of the TARDIS watching Donna's wedding from a distance. She was stood amongst her friends and family with a beaming smile, and she looked beautiful. As if she didn't have a care in the world. I spotted Wilf and Sylvia stood slightly apart from the group, watching their daughter and granddaughter happily. Suddenly, Sylvia turned around and noticed us there, and she nudged her father.

"Here they come." I muttered as they made their way over to us.

"And here you are, eh?" Wilf said as he stopped by the floral gate in front of the TARDIS. "Same old face, didn't I tell you you'd be alright, Doctor? Oh! They've arrested Mr Naismith. It was on the news: crimes undisclosed, and his daughter, both of them, locked up. But I keep thinking, Doctor, there's one thing you never told me. That woman, who was she?" I'd felt something different about that Time Lady, too. The older one, who Dad saw, and the one who winked at me. I felt a connection to both of them, but not the same link. I heard Dad take a deep breath.

"I just wanted to give you this," he said, producing an envelope from his coat. "Wedding present. Thing is, I never carry money so I just popped back in time, borrowed a quid off a really lovely man. Geoffrey Noble, his name was," Sylvia let out a quiet sob and put her hand to her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. "Have that, he said. Have that on me." Dad finished with a smile. Wilf mouthed a thank you to us.

"Goodbye, Wilf." I said after a few seconds, turning back to the TARDIS with Dad behind me.

Later on I was sat in the console room as Dad went out to say his own subtle goodbye to Rose Tyler. I watched the scene play out on the monitor: Rose and Jackie hugging and walking through the snow in different directions, Dad hiding in the shadows behind a wall. I saw Rose turn around and look at him suddenly before she reached the next block of flats. They spoke for a couple of minutes, before she gave him a big grin and skipped happily through the building's door and up the stairs. My head dropped to the edge of the console as the grief hit me. I let out a sob, and it was for Charlie. It was for Donna. It was for Jack. It was for Dad's imminent death. I squeezed out my tears over the controls. If Charlie were still there, he would have made me feel better straight away. But he wasn't. The only comfort I had was the TARDIS soothing me softly in my head. I looked up quickly as I heard Dad stumble inside and shut the door behind him, leaning on it for a few seconds before he moved. I wiped my eyes and watched him walk slowly up to the console, removing his coat for the last time and throwing it on one of the coral pillars. He paused near the controls and raised his hand, which was glowing a golden yellow. My breath caught in my throat as I struggled to stop from crying. Dad quickly put his hand down and walked around the console, setting the TARDIS to flight as he went. I watched him the whole time, waiting for it to begin. He stopped near the doors again with tears welling up in his eyes. His deep brown eyes that I would never see again. He looked at me with fear, and I allowed myself to release my sobs. I kept my eyes on Dad, not letting myself miss any second of his last moments in that body. His lips quivered as he opened them, preparing to speak his last words with that voice.

"I don't want to go." He said, and my hearts broke as he lifted both arms and threw them back, his whole body bursting into gold. He was an exploding sun, the regeneration energy hitting almost every surface of the TARDIS. I stumbled as the console and parts of the grating on the floor was set on fire, tripping backwards into one of the pillars. The one on my left broke from the top and collapsed, luckily not hitting Dad's still blazing body. Suddenly, he let out a scream amongst the sound of the golden energy, and it ended as the glittering flames ceased. The man stood in Dad's place was younger, with dark, flicky hair and a prominent chin. He was kind of goofy looking, but in a good way. Despite that, I didn't like it. This man was not my Dad, like I told him before, and seeing him in the suit just felt wrong.

"Legs! I've still got legs," he exclaimed, lifting up his knee and kissing it. "Good, arms. Hands. Ooh, fingers, lots of fingers," he said, wiggling his hands in front of his eyes. "Ears, yes. Eyes, two. Nose, I've had worse," he continued, feeling his face. "Chin. Blimey! Hair… I'm a girl! No, no, I'm not a girl. And still not ginger!" He was examining the front of his hair, then tucked it behind his ears. "And something else, something important, I'm I'm I'm…"

"Crashing!" I screamed, clinging to the pillar still standing.

"Yes!" He laughed, and leapt to the console as the TARDIS gave a sharp bang. I staggered forwards to help him, but I didn't reach the centre of the room. I felt the hit on the back of my head as I was pushed to the floor. The last thing I heard before my eyes closed was: "Geronimo!"

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Second chapter done, as promised :) The sad ending of Tennant's era and the beginning of Matt's. Forgot to tell you why the last update took so long earlier! As well as being more difficult to write, I had a busy week.. firstly, worrying about A level results for the best part of Monday to Wednesday, and secondly, getting into my first choice uni on Thursday! Yay! Thank you to JadeJedi for the review last chapter, and especially 87 for the lovely messages :) Read & Review! xx**


	18. The Eleventh Hour

I was laid on my back when I felt my head return to consciousness. It took a few seconds to realise that I was outside. I inhaled the air deeply. OK, Earth, twentieth century. Possibly the nineties. Dad landed the TARDIS in a relatively sensible place, then.

"Dad." I muttered, suddenly remembering what had happened. Dad didn't land the TARDIS. The Doctor did. I opened my eyes. Above me was the night sky, filled with stars and a few clouds. I felt the cold grass underneath my hands. As I raised my head, I noticed the blue box a few feet away from me, knocked down to its side and smoking. I sighed and pushed myself to my feet, wiping the dirt from my hands on my trousers as I looked around. I couldn't see the Doctor anywhere. There was a path leading to a large house on my left, though, with the light on in the hallway and the front door wide open. I passed a smashed plate with a piece of bread lying near it as I crept towards the door. Once I'd stepped inside, I heard a loud voice coming from the other end of the hall.

"Am I? Good! Funny's good." I carried on towards that room, and found the Doctor sat at a table, soaking wet and still wearing my Dad's suit, with a little human girl. She had red hair that reminded me of Donna. The both of them were eating: the girl with an ice cream scoop over a tub of the stuff, and the Doctor with a combination of fish fingers and custard.

"What are we having?" I asked as cheerfully as I could, sitting down next to the Doctor.

"Jen!" He exclaimed. "I'm funny."

"Really? Your face is, I guess." I teased as I took one of the fish fingers and dipped it in the custard.

"Oi!"

"Who are you?" The little girl asked me, pausing with a scoopful of ice cream next to her mouth. She had an accent, a new one. One I'd heard before, but only briefly.

"This is Jenny, she's my daughter." The Doctor replied enthusiastically. I flinched slightly as he spoke and looked down at my hands.

"How can you have a daughter?" The girl asked him.

"It's all a bit wibbly," He said in return. "What's your name?"

"Amelia Pond."

"Oh, what a brilliant name!" I grinned half-heartedly.

"Amelia Pond," the Doctor repeated. "Like a name in a fairy tale. Are we in Scotland, Amelia?"

"No, we had to move to England," Amelia replied bitterly. "It's rubbish."

"So what about your Mum and Dad, then? Are they upstairs?" The Doctor asked. "Thought we'd have woken them by now."

"I don't have a Mum and Dad. Just an aunt." She said.

"I don't even have an aunt," the Doctor smiled. "Just Jenny."

"You're lucky." Amelia giggled.

"I know." He nodded, and grinned at me. I felt a pang of guilt in my hearts.

"So, where's your aunt, Amelia?" I asked.

"She's out."

"And she left you all alone?" The Doctor exclaimed with a frown.

"I'm not scared!" Amelia replied.

"Of course you're not." I smiled.

"Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of a box, man eats fish custard," The Doctor reeled off, taking a bite of a fish finger enthusiastically. "And look at you! Just sitting there," there was a pause as he finished his food. "So you know what I think?"

"What?"

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

Amelia led us upstairs and into her bedroom, which was blue and dim in the night. There was a wardrobe next to a pretty paned window, and a bed with patterned frames at both the head and foot of it. What caught my attention, however, was the slightly curved crack in the wall opposite us.

"You've had some cowboys in here," the Doctor said, making me wince a little at the familiarity to Dad's voice. It left quickly, though, in his next sentence: "Not actually cowboys, though that can happen." There was a pause as the Doctor and me stared at the crack in the wall suspiciously.

"I used to hate apples, so my Mum put faces on them." Amelia said quietly, handing the Doctor something. I glanced across and caught a glimpse of a small red apple with a smiley face cut into it in his hand.

"She sounds good, your Mum," he replied, tossing it in the air. "I'll keep it for later."

"The wall's solid, and the crack doesn't go the whole way through," I thought aloud, still scrutinising the jagged line. "So where's the draught coming from?"

"Quite right, Jen," the Doctor commented, pulling out Dad's screwdriver and scanning the wall. "Wibbly-wobbly-"

"-Timey-wimey." I finished.

"You know what the crack is?" the Doctor questioned Amelia.

"What?" The girl asked.

"It's a crack, but I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, because the crack isn't in the wall." He replied.

"Where is it, then?"

"Everywhere. In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world," the Doctor explained as he stepped forwards and ran his fingers along the edge. "Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together in the wall of your bedroom. Sometimes, can you hear?"

"A voice. Yes." Amelia replied. At her words, a low growl echoed from somewhere around the wall. It was very quiet, and I had to listen intently to make sure it was really there. The Doctor quickly grabbed a glass from beside Amelia's bed and put it to the wall, listening to whatever was inside.

"What's it saying, Doctor?" I asked. I saw him frown for a fraction of a second before answering.

"Prisoner Zero." He muttered.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped. That's what I heard," Amelia said. "What does it mean?"

"It means that on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner," the Doctor replied. "And you know what that means?"

"What?"

"You need a better wall," he said. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way."

"So the forces will invert, and what? It'll snap itself shut?" I asked, stepping closer to examine the crack myself.

"Yes, Jen," the Doctor replied. "Or…"

"What?" Amelia asked.

"You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

"Yeah." She snorted.

"Everything's going to be fine," The Doctor said, a small excited smirk clear underneath his blank expression. "Jenny, get back." He ordered as he took Amelia's hand. I reluctantly obeyed and took my place by the Doctor's other side as he raised the sonic screwdriver in his hand. He was shorter than Dad, I noticed, once I was stood right next to him. Suddenly a bright light filled the room, and I squinted back at the crack, which had opened wide to show darkness behind.

"Hello? Hello?" The Doctor said loudly. A huge eye instantly appeared and stared at us through the wall: blue and definitely alien.

"What's that?" Amelia mumbled. I could tell she was afraid. There was a pause in which neither of us answered the little girl, and continued staring at the eye. Suddenly, a bolt of blue-white light shot out and hit the Doctor's legs, making him buckle for a couple of seconds.

"Doctor!" I cried as I grabbed his arm, still watching the crack. As he stood back up, the wall closed up again into blue, the eye with it.

"There, you see! Told you it would close, didn't we, Jen?" He smiled, taking something from his pocket. "Good as new."

"What's that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?" Amelia asked.

"Nah, that was its guard." I replied.

"Whatever it was, it sent me a message," the Doctor continued, and waved a small square object in front of my face with a grin.

"Psychic paper." I smiled.

"Yes, takes a lovely little message," he said, and read it: "'Prisoner Zero has escaped.' But why tell us? Unless…"

"Unless what?" Amelia said.

"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here." The Doctor finished.

"But he couldn't have. We'd know, wouldn't we?" I said. The Doctor was stood wide-eyed and worried, looking around the room in thought. After a few seconds, he rushed outside, stopping within a couple of steps on the landing. Amelia and me followed him quickly. He rotated on the spot and frowned at the walls in frustration.

"It's difficult, brand new me, nothing works yet," he said. "But there's something missing," he paused dramatically. "In the corner of my eye." I followed his pupils to the side, to a door at the end of the corridor. There was something not right about it. I opened my mouth to say just that, when a bell sounded both from outside and in my head. It rang out several times, as if something was trying to get my attention. The TARDIS. I looked at the Doctor.

"No no no no no no no no no no!" He yelled as we sprinted down the stairs and out into the garden. "We've got to get back in there! Jen, the engines are phasing! It's going to burn!"

"But it's just a box!" Amelia panted a little way behind us. "How can a box have engines?"

"It's not _just _a box!" I retorted, hopping up to sit on the side as the Doctor ran around attaching ropes.

"It's a time machine." He added.

"What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?" She asked disbelievingly.

"Not for much longer if we can't get her stabilised," the Doctor replied quickly. "Five minute hop into the future should do it."

"Can I come?" Amelia asked slightly nervously. I shook my head subtly at the Doctor.

"Not safe in here, not yet," he said to the girl, hopping up to join me on the edge with rope in his hand, holding another end for me. "Five minutes. Give us five minutes, we'll be right back."

"People always say that." She said sadly. We turned and looked back, the Doctor jumping back on to the grass.

"Are we people? Do I even look like people?" He said as he bent down to Amelia's level.

"Not really." I giggled to myself.

"Trust me. I'm the Doctor." He continued, then climbed back up on the TARDIS as Amelia smiled behind us. I turned and gave her a reassuring grin, before we both slipped over the side into the smoky box.

"Geronimo!" The Doctor yelled as we fell through the unrecognisable console room, almost all of the coral pillars broken into pieces and scattered over the TARDIS walls. I swallowed a lump in my throat as we plummeted past, the Doctor laughing happily next to me.

"Jenny!" I heard him call as the rope stopped me plunging any deeper halfway down a corridor. I looked up to see his funny new face peering down at me from the console room.

"I'm OK," I called back. "I'll just climb up."

"Don't let go of the rope!" He instructed.

"Yes, I know, Doctor!" I snapped. I felt the box dematerialise as he disappeared from the top of the corridor, the engines whining a little more than usual. I sighed. It was going to take more energy than I cared to use to get to the console again.

"Jen, what do I look like? Is it good? I know I'm not ginger, _again_, but-" I heard the Doctor shout as I placed my Converse on the wall and started to pull myself up in a similar style to rock climbing… TARDIS climbing! I giggled to myself and carried on, about to reply to the newly regenerated Time Lord, when my feet reached a door. I glanced down and stopped when I saw the name on it: Charlie. Charlie's room. It was the first thing that made me think about that boy since the bus stop, and I was suddenly overcome with guilt. He saved me from Rassilon and the Time War by killing himself, and I never even told him that I forgave him for the Master situation. It probably wouldn't be the last time I would be reminded of him, either. The TARDIS tended to keep the rooms of Dad's and the other Doctors' companions somewhere in her database, and I'd stumbled across some during my frequent explorations of her corridors. Rose's seemed to be a prominent one. I'd also spotted Jack's, as well as Donna's and Sarah Jane's and a load of names Dad had never mentioned: Susan, Jamie, Leela, Ace…

"Jen?"

I'd been staring at Charlie's modestly carved name for a couple of minutes when the Doctor called for me again. I shook my head and tore my eyes away from the door, continuing up the corridor with quick determination.

"Yep, coming!" I shouted back.

"I think I've worked out what was wrong with Amelia's house…" he replied distractedly, amid clattering and banging from the console.

"Good." I said loudly.

"Argh!" He yelled as I reached the top and pulled myself into the room. I looked up to see the console billowing smoke, engulfing the Doctor's new body with the dark grey mist.

"What happened?" I coughed as I got to my feet. He emerged in front of me in an instant, holding out a cloth for me to cover my mouth and grabbing my free hand. He pulled me across the room (which I assumed had straightened itself to the right angle, I couldn't exactly see through the smoke) and out of the doors, back into Amelia's garden. It was light, I noticed, rather than a cool evening like before. Something else didn't feel quite right, but I couldn't dwell on it. The Doctor pulled me down the path so fast that that was all I could think about. His hand was warm and familiar, even though it was completely different to Dad's.

"Amelia! Amelia!" He shouted frantically. "I worked out what it was. I know what I was missing! You've got to get out of there!" He dropped my hand once we reached the front door and scrambled around for the sonic screwdriver.

"What is it? What did we miss?" I asked as he fiddled with the buttons, unlocking the door after a few tries.

"Prisoner Zero!" He replied loudly, running up the stairs as soon as the door opened. "Prisoner Zero is here! Amelia?"

"Amelia, are you alright?" I shouted at the landing walls. Nobody was in sight.

"Are you there, Amelia?" The Doctor continued, stopping next to a door near the stairs and using the sonic on it. "Prisoner Zero is here. Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is here! Do you understand me? Prisoner Zero is-" I turned around immediately at the sound of him being hit, hard, and falling to the floor. There was a tall red-haired girl with an angry expression stood behind us, wielding a cricket bat.

"What did you do?" I managed to exclaim, before she hit me, too.

When I opened my eyes again, I was sat up against something metal with the Doctor still unconscious next to me. My head was banging. I groaned and tried to pull my hand up, but I couldn't. I looked down to see that the Doctor and me were sharing a pair of handcuffs, which were attached to the radiator. So that was what I was leaning on.

"Don't try to move, you'll never get out of that." A voice said from the other end of the landing. I looked up to see the girl who had the cricket bat before. I didn't notice then what she was wearing: a police uniform, complete with hat, and a very short skirt.

"You're the police." I said as she walked towards us.

"Yes, and you two were breaking and entering." She replied.

"Well, yeah, I guess we were," I nodded. "Never thought of it like that before." The policewoman rolled her eyes and pulled out a radio.

"White male, mid-twenties. White female, early twenties," she said into it. I snorted involuntarily at the age estimations, earning myself a disapproving frown. "Breaking and entering," she continued. "Send me some back-up, I've got them restrained." Suddenly, I felt a nudging in my head, and I knew that the Doctor was waking up. He sniffed and groaned slightly as he lifted his head and opened his eyes.

"Oi, you!" The policewoman snapped, switching off her radio. "Sit still."

"Cricket bat," the Doctor mumbled in reply. "Jen, I'm getting cricket bat…"

"Right, Doctor," I nodded. "Wewere breaking and entering. Apparently." He attempted to stand, but was quickly pulled back to the floor by his wrist, yanking mine into the radiator in the process.

"Ow!" I shouted at him. "We're handcuffed!"

"Oh, sorry," he replied. "Much better! Brand new me, whack on the head. Just what it needed."

"Do you two want to shut up now? I've got back-up on the way." The policewoman interrupted.

"Hang on, no, wait… you're a policewoman." The Doctor frowned at her.

"And you're breaking and entering. You see how this works?" She replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, we've already been through this. Twice," I said loudly. "But what are you doing here? Where's Amelia?"

"Amelia Pond?" She asked, suddenly quieter.

"Yeah, little Scottish girl," the Doctor replied. "Where is she? We promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing, I suppose we must have gone a bit far. Has something happened to her?" The policewoman blinked.

"Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time."

"How long?" The Doctor and me asked simultaneously, making me flinch at the similarity that we still seemed to have.

"Six months." She replied, her face blank.

"No no no! We can't be six months late!" The Doctor exclaimed as I groaned. "We said five minutes. I promised."

"Trust you." I teased.

"Hey!" He replied. "I'll have you know, Jenny Smith, that I am a very good pilot!"

"Could've fooled me." I smirked, watching the policewoman walk halfway down the landing with the radio out again.

"Sarge, it's me again," she spoke loudly. "Hurry it up, these two know something about Amelia Pond."

"What happened to her?" I called.

"What happened to Amelia Pond?" The Doctor added. The policewoman ignored us, but over her shoulder, I saw the door from six months before. The one that the Doctor tried to unlock before we were knocked out, and the one that felt strange.

"We need to speak to whoever lives in this house now." The Doctor said loudly, his voice holding that authoritative tone that Dad had.

"I live here." The policewoman replied.

"But you're the police!"

"Yes, and this is where I live!" She snapped. "You got a problem with that?"

"OK, how many rooms?" I interrupted.

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked with annoyance.

"How many rooms are on this floor? Count them." I clarified.

"Why?"

`"Because it will change your life." The Doctor said seriously. The policewoman blinked.

"Five," she answered confidently, and even pointed them out. "One, two, three, four, five."

"Six." We corrected.

"Six?" She questioned disbelievingly.

"Look." The Doctor said.

"Look where?"

"Exactly where you don't want to look, where you never want to look, the corner of your eye. Look behind you." She slowly turned on the spot, her eyes wide.

"That's… that is not possible," she said quietly. "How is that possible?"

"There's a perception filter around the door. Sensed it the last time we were here, should've seen it."

"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed."

"The filter stops you," the Doctor explained. "Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding. You need to uncuff us now!" The policewoman started to walk slowly towards the door, apparently transfixed by it.

"I don't have the key," she replied absent-mindedly. "I lost it."

"Oh, brilliant policewoman you are!" I shouted, half-joking, half-panicking.

"How can you have lost it?" The Doctor exclaimed. "Stay away from that door!"

"Don't!" I yelled as she reached out her hand towards the doorknob.

"Listen to us! Don't open that-" the Doctor started, interrupted by the click of the handle. "Why does no one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?" I lost sight of the policewoman as she stepped inside the room.

"Again." I injected as the Doctor began frantically searching his pockets.

"My screwdriver, where is it?" He asked loudly. "Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?"

"There's nothing here." I heard her say from behind the door.

"Whatever's there stopped you seeing the whole room." I replied.

"What makes you think you could see it?" The Doctor added. "Now please, just get out!"

"Silver, blue at the end?" She asked, ignoring his request yet again.

"My screwdriver, yeah."

"It's here." She said.

"Must have rolled under the door." The Doctor speculated.

"Yeah, must have," the policewoman replied with an edge of anxiety. "And then it must have jumped up on the table." We looked at each other, wide-eyed.

"Get out!"

"Get out of there!" We repeated over and over, but the policewoman was not reappearing.

"What are you doing?" I yelled eventually. "We told you to get out! What's keeping you in there?"

"There's nothing here, but…" I heard her reply quietly.

"Corner of your eye." The Doctor reminded her.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Don't try to see it. If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you," He continued. "Don't look at it. Do not look." Within seconds of his clear instructions, we heard her scream.

"Oh, brilliant." I muttered, while the Doctor told her to get out again. That time she did, and rushed straight from the room to us.

"Give me that!" He said once she's reached us, indicating the screwdriver in her hand. He aimed it at the door then down to the handcuffs on our wrists.

"It's not working, is it?" I said to him.

"What's the bad alien done to you?" He replied to the screwdriver rather than me.

"Will that door hold it?" The policewoman asked in panic.

"Oh yes, of course!" I said sarcastically. "It's an inter-dimensional multiform from outer space, and guess what?"

"What?"

"It's terrified of wood." I rolled my eyes and looked back down to the Doctor still working on the handcuffs, just as a light flashed around the door frame.

"What's that? What's it doing?" The policewoman asked.

"I don't know, getting dressed?" The Doctor replied. I giggled a little. "Run, just go. Your back-up's coming, we'll be fine."

"There is no back-up." She said, sounding frustrated. We both looked up at her, confusion etched on our faces.

"But you called for it, on your radio." I argued.

"I was pretending, it's a pretend radio." She replied.

"You're a policewoman." The Doctor retorted.

"I'm a kissogram!" She exclaimed and whipped off her hat, releasing long red hair which flowed over her shoulders. Hair that reminded me of Donna… Suddenly, the door opposite us burst open. A man and dog stepped out, both of them with frowns on their faces. They were not of Earth.

"But it's just…" the policewoman-kissogram breathed.

"No it isn't," the Doctor contradicted. "Look at the faces. Jen?"

"Prisoner Zero." I smiled. A growl instantly came from the alien's direction. I looked up at it, kind of expecting the noise to be coming from the dog, but it wasn't. The man's face was tensed and barking, while the dog was silent.

"What?" The red-haired woman asked, looking down at us on the floor. "I'm sorry, but what?"

"It's all one creature!" I replied, turning to the Doctor for confirmation.

"Correct," he said. "One creature disguised as two. Clever old multiform. A bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you?"

"Where did you get that pattern from?" I asked it, now looking directly at us. "You couldn't have just made it up, there must be a psychic link somewhere. How did you do that?" It snarled aggressively and advanced a step, the human figure opening its mouth wide to reveal several long, sharp teeth.

"Stay, boy!" The Doctor snapped, stopping the creature from moving any closer. "Her and my daughter and me, we're safe," he continued. I flinched again when he said daughter, although not as strongly as before. "Want to know why? The policewoman sent for back-up."

"I didn't send for back-up!" The red-head snapped.

"I know, that was a clever lie to save our lives," The Doctor replied quickly, then turned back to the creature. "OK, yeah, no back-up! And that's why we're safe. Alone, we're not a threat to you. If we had back-up, then you'd have to kill us!" There was a pause, before a loud booming voice spoke through the entire house.

"Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."

"What's that?" The red-head asked.

"That would be back-up." I replied.

"Yes, OK, one more time," the Doctor restarted. "We do have back-up and that's definitely why we're safe."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated." I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Well, safe apart from, you know, incineration." He finished with less confidence. The creature turned both its heads to the right – well, our right, its left – and stamped inside the room next to it.

"Yeah, it's gone in there but we're still trapped!" I complained as the Doctor banged the screwdriver on the floor.

"Work, work, work, come on." He muttered. I watched for a few more seconds until the blue light suddenly lit up again, making me laugh in celebration.

"That's more like it!" I exclaimed as the Doctor unlocked the handcuffs and leapt up, pulling me to my feet at the same time.

"Run!" He shouted, and pushed the red-haired woman forwards, dragging me by the hand after them down the stairs and out into the garden.

"Kissogram?" The Doctor asked the woman once he'd locked the front door.

"Is that really the most important question to ask right now, Doctor?" I said.

"There's another one!" He continued. "Why are you calling me Doctor?" I swallowed.

"So, kissogram?" I repeated as we rushed along the garden path.

"Yes, a kissogram!" The red-head replied.

"Why a policewoman?"

"You two broke into my house! It was either this or a French maid," she argued as we reached the TARDIS, still smoking. "What's going on? Tell me!"

"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?" The Doctor answered, fiddling with the TARDIS key.

"Yes."

"Me too."

"And me." I added.

"No no, don't do that! Not now!" He shouted with frustration at the blue doors. "It's still rebuilding, not letting us in."

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated." I turned back to the house. In one of the top windows, I spotted the man and dog looking out at us, the human still barking.

"You know, even though it's an escaped prisoner and it's going to cause the house to be incinerated, it looks quite funny." I chuckled.

"Come on!" The red-head said suddenly, pulling the Doctor by the arm away from the TARDIS.

"No, wait, hang on, wait, wait," he argued, removing his arm from her hands. "The shed. I destroyed that shed last time I was here, smashed it to pieces." I shook my head lightly and rolled my eyes.

"So there's a new one," the woman replied. "Let's go!"

"But the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least." He questioned.

"That's a good point." I nodded, stepping closer to it. In fairness, it was definitely older than six months. I watched the Doctor sniff the wood, then just like Dad used to, licked it.

"Twelve years," he muttered. "We're not six months late, we're twelve years late!"

"But, if we've been gone for twelve years…" I said slowly as the Doctor stomped over to the red-haired woman.

"He's coming." She said.

"You said six months," he said harshly. "Why did you say six months?"

"We've got to go."

"Amelia wouldn't be a little girl any more…" I continued, voicing my thoughts aloud.

"This matters, this is important. Why did you say six months?"

"Why did you say five minutes?" The woman shrieked in his face. Her expression went from anger to fear to embarrassment in a matter of seconds.

"What?" The Doctor mumbled.

"Come on." She said quietly.

"What?"

"Come on!" They repeated, and I pulled the pair of them back towards the path.

"What?" The Doctor exclaimed again as we ran past Prisoner Zero, who was stood outside the front door of the house.

Within a couple of minutes of running, we had slowed to a brisk walk and had reached the village.

"You're Amelia." The Doctor said to the woman, who was clomping along a bridge irately.

"You're late." She retorted.

"Amelia Pond, you're the little girl." He continued.

"I'm Amelia, and you're late."

"Amelia Pond-"

"Yes, she's Amelia. And you're the Doctor and I'm Jenny," I interrupted loudly. "Amelia, what happened?"

"Twelve years happened." She replied moodily. Although, she probably had the right to be annoyed.

"You hit us with a cricket bat!" The Doctor exclaimed.

"Twelve years." She repeated.

"A cricket bat!"

"Twelve years and four psychiatrists."

"Four?" I cried involuntarily.

"I kept biting them." Amelia explained briefly.

"Why?" The Doctor asked.

"They said you weren't real." She replied in a quieter tone. Suddenly I was distracted by the voice, coming from a crackly speaker somewhere. I looked across at a brightly coloured van a few metres away.

"No no no, come on," Amelia complained. "What? We're being staked out by an ice cream van." The Doctor and me set off quickly, Amelia a few steps behind us.

"What's that?" I asked the man in the van as soon as we reached it.

"Why are you playing that?" The Doctor added.

"It's supposed to be Claire de Lune." The man replied, confused. The Doctor picked up the speaker and put it to his ear. I looked around. A few feet away, a runner had stopped and was staring at her iPod in bewilderment. Another woman was stood nearby listening to the message through her phone.

"It's everywhere." I breathed.

"Doctor, what's happening?" Amelia asked loudly. I turned to see him leaping over a white fence into a garden, and I followed him immediately.

We entered a quaint little cottage, and headed straight for the room on the left of the door, Amelia appearing behind us in a few seconds. Inside was a small living room, obviously owned by an older human going by the décor. My suspicions were proved correct when I saw an elderly woman stood in the middle of the room with a remote, pointing it at the television. On the screen was the eye from the crack in the wall.

"Hello!" The Doctor said to her. "Sorry to burst in, we're doing a special on television faults in this area," he paused, looking back at Amelia's outfit. "Also crimes. Let's have a look." He took the remote from the woman.

"I was just about to phone, it's on every channel," she told us. "Hello, Amy dear. Are you a policewoman now?" I looked at Amelia, who appeared to be slightly uncomfortable.

"Well, sometimes." She replied.

"I thought you were a nurse?" The woman questioned.

"I can be a nurse." Amelia continued. She wasn't very convincing.

"Or, actually a nun?" The woman asked suspiciously.

"I dabble." Amelia chuckled falsely.

"Amy, who are your friends?" She asked her, looking around at the Doctor and me.

"Who's Amy?" The Doctor interrupted.

"Amelia, obviously." I replied, rolling my eyes yet again.

"Amelia Pond, that was a great name!" He whined.

"That's true, he does have a point." I said as I turned to Amy, shrugging my shoulders.

"Bit fairy tale." She replied coolly. There was an awkward pause.

"I know you, don't I?" The woman smiled at us, breaking the silence. "I've seen you both somewhere before."

"Not me, brand new face!" The Doctor grinned. "First time on, wouldn't have seen us together," he turned to Amy. "And what sort of job's a kissogram?"

"I go to parties and I kiss people," she replied, clearing her throat. "With outfits. It's a laugh!"

"You were a little girl five minutes ago!" He said heatedly.

"You see what I have to put up with?" I grinned.

"Hey!"

"You're worse than my aunt!" Amy argued.

"I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt," he replied, then turned to the elderly woman. "And that is not how I'm introducing myself." He smiled and picked up a radio, sonicking it. I heard the same message again, in different languages.

"OK, so it's everywhere, in every language." The Doctor said, dropping the radio again and moving across to a window. He opened it and stuck his new head out.

"They're broadcasting to the whole world," I added. "What are you looking for?"

"OK, planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core," he began, pulling himself back into the room. "They're going to need a forty percent fission blast." A young man walked in at that point, immediately staring at the Doctor. He was fairly handsome, for a human.

"But they'll have to power up first, won't they, Doctor?" I asked. "A medium sized starship, that would take about twenty minutes."

"Yes, Jen," he replied, turning back to the man. "What do you think, twenty minutes? Yeah, I think you're right, Jen. Twenty minutes."

"So we've got twenty minutes? That's it?" I exclaimed.

"Twenty minutes to what?" Amy asked.

"Are you the Doctor?" The man asked suddenly.

"He is, isn't he? He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor, and his yellow daughter!" The woman chuckled happily.

"Yellow?" I exclaimed. The Doctor looked me up and down and shrugged, so I hit him.

"Ow!" He moaned, holding his arm.

"You deserved that." I grinned.

"Gran, it's them, isn't it? It's really them!" The man said excitedly.

"Jeff, shut up!" Amy hissed. "Twenty minutes to what?"

"The human residence. They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet." The Doctor replied.

"Somewhere up in the sky, there's a spaceship and it's going to incinerate the Earth." I explained.

"Twenty minutes to the end of the world." He finished.

We left Jeff and his gran's house quickly, heading towards the centre of the village. It was pretty, but fairly boring. I could see why little Amelia Pond called it 'rubbish'.

"What is this place? Where are we?" The Doctor asked Amy as we walked.

"Leadworth." She replied.

"Where's the rest of it?" He continued.

"This is it."

"What? Just this stuff?" I said, spinning around in a circle as I walked to indicate the village square.

"Is there an airport?" The Doctor asked.

"No." Amy answered.

"A nuclear power station?"

"No."

"Even a little one?"

"No."

"Nearest city?"

"Gloucester. Half an hour by car."

"We don't have half an hour." I muttered.

"Do we have a car?" The Doctor asked hopefully.

"No." Amy replied.

"Well, that's handy!" I said sarcastically.

"Fantastic, it is," the Doctor continued. "Twenty minutes to save the world and we've got a post office, Jen!" He pointed over to a little shop on our left.

"And it's shut." I added.

"What's that?" He asked, breaking into a run to get to some sort of water in front of us.

"It's a duck pond." Amy answered.

"Why aren't there any ducks?"

"I don't know, there's never any ducks."

"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?"

"Is this really important?" I interrupted. "Come on, you two, priorities!"

"I don't know, Jen, why would I know?" The Doctor replied, struggling for a few seconds with a touch of leftover regeneration. I jumped to his side immediately.

"Doctor, are you OK?" I said quietly as he sat on the ground, clutching his chest.

"I'm not ready, I'm not done yet." He groaned. I knelt down next to him and put my hand on his in sympathy, just as the sky went dark. I looked up and watched. Even the sun changed to a flickering grey.

"What's happening? Why's it going dark?" Amy asked. "So what's wrong with the sun?"

"Nothing, you're looking at it through a forcefield," the Doctor replied. "They've sealed off your upper atmosphere, now they're getting ready to boil the planet." He stood up quickly, and I followed suit. "Oh, and here they come, the human race," he said, looking at the people on the green who had all pulled out their phones. "The end comes, as it was always going to. Down a video phone."

"This isn't real, is it?" Amy said suddenly. "This is some kind of big wind up."

"Why would we wind you up?" I asked her softly.

"You told me you had a time machine." She replied.

"And you believed us." The Doctor said.

"Then I grew up." She retorted.

"Oh, you never want to do that!" I groaned jokingly.

"No, hang on, shut up, wait!" The Doctor expelled all of a sudden. He smacked himself on the forehead, making himself look mental, even to me. "I missed it. I saw it and I missed it," he hit himself again. "What did I see? I saw, what did I see?" He carried on muttering to himself for a while, a concentrated look in his eyes, so I didn't want to interfere just yet.

"Twenty minutes! I can do it!" He exclaimed suddenly and turned to Amy. "Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help us."

"No." She said with determination.

"I'm sorry?" The Doctor blinked, obviously taken aback.

"No!" She repeated, louder, and before I could stop it she had grabbed him by Dad's tie and dragged him across the green.

"Amy, no!" I shouted, following them. "What are you doing?" She stopped by a newly parked car and shoved the Doctor into it, pulling the tie into the door and slamming it shut. I winced as I saw the material stretched to almost breaking point between the Doctor's neck and the car.

"Amy, under no circumstances, break that tie," I said seriously. The pair of them turned and looked at me in confusion. "That's my Dad's tie." I continued, my voice a little weaker.

"What are you talking about?" She snapped.

"Amy." The Doctor said, bringing her attention back to him. His eyes flickered between me and her, and I thought I could detect hurt and sympathy directed at me.

"Who are you?" She said to us.

"You know who we are." The Doctor replied.

"No, really, who are you?" She repeated.

"Look at the sky! End of the world, twenty minutes." He exclaimed.

"Better talk quickly then."

"Amy, I am going to need my car back." An old man interrupted, stood a little to the side. I didn't even notice him there before that point.

"Yes, in a bit, now go and have coffee." Amy replied to him.

"Right, yes." He said after a pause, and walked away slowly.

"Catch," the Doctor said, reaching into his pocket and tossing an apple at Amy. I looked over her shoulder. It was the one she gave him when she was a little girl. The one with the smiley face. "I'm the Doctor, and that's my daughter. We're time travellers. Everything we told you twelve years ago is true. We're real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go now, everything you've ever known is over."

"I don't believe you." She said in a whisper.

"Just twenty minutes," he continued, gripping her wrist. "Just believe me for twenty minutes. Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. Amy, believe for twenty minutes." She paused, looking between the Doctor and the apple, and internal battle clear inside her head.

"What do we do?" She asked, unlocking the car quickly and letting him out. I released a held-in breath, partly for the planet and partly for the tie.

"Stop that nurse!" The Doctor shouted, sprinting across the green in an instant with Amy and me right behind him. We ran right up to a young man in a uniform. He had dark blonde hair and blue eyes, the nose on his face almost as prominent as the Doctor's new chin.

"The sun's going out and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?" The Doctor asked him straight away.

"Amy?" The man said.

"Hi! Oh, this is Rory, he's a friend." Amy introduced us.

"Hello, Rory." I smiled.

"Boyfriend." He corrected Amy before nodding at me.

"Kind of boyfriend." She replied awkwardly. I frowned at them both.

"Amy!" Rory started.

"Man and dog, why?" The Doctor interrupted.

"Oh my god, it's them." Rory exclaimed after a pause.

"Just answer his question, please." Amy said.

"It's him though," he continued. "The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor, and Yellow Jenny!" I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, they came back."

"But they were a story. They were a game." Rory spluttered.

"Man and dog, why?" The Doctor asked, grabbing the front of his shirt roughly. "Tell me now."

"Sorry, because he can't be there, because he's-"

"In a hospital, in a coma." The pair of them said simultaneously.

"Yeah." Rory said.

"Knew it. Multiform you see," The Doctor said, letting go of his shirt. "Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed-"

"A psychic link with a living but dormant mind!" I finished.

"Correct, Jen!" He smiled, and walked closer to the man and dog a few feet from us as it snarled. "Prisoner Zero."

"What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?" Rory exclaimed.

"Yes." Amy and me said at the same time. Suddenly, I heard a distant buzzing. I looked up just as a shadow fell over the green. It was a spaceship, grey and metal, the eye from the crack swivelling around underneath it.

"See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology," the Doctor started, producing the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and lifting it into the air. "And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." He pressed the button, the blue light appearing at the end of it. Everything around the village started: streetlights shattering, alarms blaring, even a fire engine moving by itself.

"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?" He continued with a smile. Prisoner Zero kept barking. The Doctor moved the screwdriver and pointed it at a phone box, which exploded within a couple of seconds.

"Argh!" He shouted as I heard a fizzling sound, and I turned to see the Doctor practically throw the screwdriver down to the ground. "No no no, don't do that!" I saw the shadow move from the grass and looked back up. The ship was moving out of the sky, away from Prisoner Zero.

"Look, it's going." Rory said.

"No, come back!" The Doctor yelled.

"Prisoner Zero is here!" I joined in. We continued shouting up at the retreating ship to no avail.

"Doctor, Jenny! The drain. It just sort of melted and went down the drain." Amy said.

"Yep, probably." I replied.

"What do we do now?" She asked.

"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open," the Doctor explained. "No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on, think. Think! Jen?"

"Umm…" I desperately sought for something in my head. "We need to create something else, something alien, something to do with us? Draw attention to the fact we're not human?"

"Yes, good." He muttered.

"So that thing," Amy started. "That hid in my house for twelve years?"

"Multiforms can live for millennia, twelve years is just a pit-stop." I replied.

"So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? The same minute?"

"They're looking for him, but followed us," the Doctor explained. "They saw me through the crack, got a fix. They're only late 'cause we are."

"What's he on about?" Rory asked Amy.

"Now, sport, give me your phone." The Doctor ordered.

"How can they be real? They were never real?" He continued.

"Phone, now, give me!" Rory quickly passed the device over at the instructions. Dad was always good at ordering people around, and he seemed to have passed that on to this version of the Doctor.

"They were just a game, we were kids," Rory continued to Amy. "You made me dress up as him, and Mels was Jenny."

"These are all coma patients?" The Doctor asked, looking at the phone. I glanced over his arm at the small screen and saw several photos of people stood still in the street. All Prisoner Zero.

"Yeah." Rory replied.

"Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero." I muttered just so the Doctor could hear.

"He had a dog, though," Amy said. "There's a dog in a coma?"

"The coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog. Laptop! Your friend, what's his name?" The Doctor said speedily. "Not him, the good-looking one."

"Thanks." Rory said.

"Jeff." Amy answered.

"Oh, thanks!"

"He had a laptop in his bag, a laptop. Big bag, big laptop, Jenny needs Jeff's laptop-" The Doctor continued.

"I do?" I interrupted.

"Yes, you do," he smiled, and passed me Rory's phone. "You know what to do." I grinned back and nodded after a couple of seconds.

"I can do that."

"Good, phone me when you're done!" He said, running off with Amy and Rory in tow.

"Hello!" I said as I entered Jeff's room. He was laid casually across his bed with his laptop conveniently switched on, apparently unaware of the spaceship that was just flying over his village. "You've got a laptop, I need it, just for a tick."

"No no no no, wait, hang on!" Jeff protested as I took it from his hands and sat down next to him.

"I'll only be a minute," I said, but immediately regretted not listening. "Blimey. I think you need a girlfriend, Jeff," I paused. "I wasn't suggesting anything then, just to be clear." Suddenly, the door opened to reveal Jeff's gran, looking extremely confused. No wonder, really, when I'd just bounded into her house shouting about laptops and viruses.

"What are you doing?" She asked me.

"The sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big video conference call," I explained as I typed. "All the experts on Earth panicking at once, and do you know what they need? Me and the Doctor! Ah, and here they all are," I said as I hacked into the system. "All the big boys: NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore…"

"Oh, I like Patrick Moore." The woman in front of me smiled.

"I'll get you his number, but watch him, he's a devil." I winked.

"You can't just hack in on a call like that!" Jeff exclaimed over my shoulder.

"I just did." I replied.

"Who are you? This is a secure call, what are you doing?" One of the experts on screen said.

"Hello, I know you should switch me off. But before you do, watch this," I replied confidently. "Fermat's Theorem, the proof, and I mean the real one, never seen before. Poor old Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it down. Our fault really, we slept in. I told Dad to set an alarm, but it was all 'we'll be fine, Jen, don't you worry about it', but never mind. Oh, and here's an oldie but a goody - why electrons have mass. And a personal favourite of mine, faster-than-light travel with two diagrams and a joke. Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm clever, right? Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention." I picked up Rory's phone and started typing on that instead.

"Miss, what are you doing?" Someone asked.

"I'm writing a computer virus. Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on," I explained quickly. "Why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out. OK, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish - whatever you've got. Any questions?"

"Who was your lady friend?" A familiar voice asked me.

"Patrick, behave!" I exclaimed in a laugh.

"What does this virus do?" Another one said.

"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters, it gets in the wifi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time," I replied. "Now, listen up, everyone! We're about to save the world."

Ten minutes later, and after making sure Jeff deleted his internet history for more than one reason, I left the house and wandered the green again, looking through Rory's phone as I went.

"Ah! Amy!" I exclaimed when I'd found her number and dialled. She picked up after three rings.

"Jenny?"

"Amelia Pond!" I shouted. "It's done, what are you doing?"

"The Doctor called the aliens back."

"Why?"

"Something to do with article something of the shadow proc-something."

"Ah, I see. I'll be watching."

I made my way back to Amy's house, scanning the skies as I walked. It appeared once I'd reached her garden again, and I watched the ship return above a tall building and hover for several minutes. I kept my eyes on it the whole time, so I didn't notice the brand new TARDIS in front of me until it left for the final time. I walked slowly down the garden path towards it. Even the exterior was different. A brighter blue, somehow newer looking. Less shabby. I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not. It was different, that was all. I stopped in front of the doors, looking up at the new black and clear windows and the light on top. It whirred from somewhere inside, inviting me in. I put my hand on the door and felt the TARDIS's familiar vibration. It was the box that I knew, but she was like the new Doctor. I knew him, he was the Doctor, but he wasn't my Dad.

"Hello, you two!" I heard from behind me. I span around to see the Doctor stood in new clothes, smiling at me. He was wearing a tweed jacket – OK, nice enough – braces – yeah, just about acceptable – and a bow tie. Hmm.

"Well done!" I replied to him. "Watched it all. Good job, Doctor."

"And you, Jen." He chuckled. We paused. I looked at him, at his new face, his new stance, his new clothes. He was definitely different. Suddenly, he walked forwards and wrapped his arms around me, lifting me into the air and chuckling. I giggled, hugging him back.

"Come on, then!" He said when he put me down on my feet. "Let's run her in." He went to open the doors.

"Doctor." I replied. He turned back and looked at me a little sadly, almost knowing what I was about to say, I thought.

"OK." He said quietly.

"I'm sorry," I started. "I just need some time."

"Yes, of course." He replied.

"I'm not leaving you, not completely," I continued. "I'll be back. Just keep Martha's phone with you. And you've got Amy now." I smiled.

"Yes," he said, and turned back to the box. "OK. What have you got for me this time?" I watched him step inside excitedly, like a little boy with a new toy. I glimpsed an orange glow from inside before he shut the doors behind him, and the box made the same strained noise as it vanished in front of my eyes. I sighed, and turned around to walk back to the village. I got halfway down the path when Amy and Rory rushed into the garden, the TARDIS noise still echoing around the air.

"He'll be back, don't worry." I smiled at the red-haired girl, and walked confidently past them. Time to be independent now, Jenny.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: OK, don't panic! Like Jenny said, she will be back with the Doctor, but realistically she would need time to grieve for Ten and Charlie.. next chapter is going to be pretty much entirely from my imagination :) Read & Review! xx**


	19. Independence

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Much prouder of this chapter than the last :) Prepare to meet a lot of characters! **

"OK, first things first, transport." I said to myself as I wandered around a busy town, biting into a pear I'd picked up from Amy's house before I left Leadworth. I'd been walking for a couple of days, thinking about places I could go between remembering Dad and Charlie. Conversations we'd had kept popping up in my head randomly. The first ones with Charlie in San Helios, and in Kataa Floko. Stories Dad told me about Donna and Martha and Jack and Rose.

"Ah!" I shouted halfway down the pavement, making a woman jump and several other people to stare and frown at me. I grinned to myself and carried on, my mind made up on what I wanted to do. I just needed some sort of vehicle. I finished the pear and tossed it into a bin, humming to myself as I strolled along. Right, when was I? I'd decided that it was the late nineties when I woke up in Amelia's garden. It was twelve years from then… so between 2008 and 2011. Had to be careful not to run into myself. 2009 was the children and the 456, so I couldn't be near Cardiff or London at that time. I should have been able to tell when that was happening. Same with the planets in the sky and the Daleks, which was 2008. Actually, if I was lucky and the time was between those two events… how did I get to Earth from Messaline in the first place? My pod! Torchwood would've had it in storage somewhere in the hub until it was blown up. So, jobs to do: number one, work out when I was. Number two, get to Cardiff Bay. Right. I paused and looked around at the crowd. I might have drawn some unnecessary attention to myself if I stopped someone there. Oh well, I wouldn't have known if I didn't try.

"Excuse me." I said, tapping a woman on the shoulder. She was carrying a dozen bags and simultaneously trying to control her two children skipping around her. She turned and frowned at me.

"Yes?"

"What year is this?" I asked with a friendly smile.

"Sorry?"

"I was just wondering, I just need to know what year I'm in."

"What year?" She grimaced.

"Yes, which year." I nodded.

"2008." She replied after blinking several times. I grinned and she frowned even more, ushering her children away from me like I was dangerous or something.

"Sorry, have there been planets in the sky yet?" I asked her loudly before she had gotten too far away. She turned her face back with a strange expression; one with confusion, fear and slight amusement all at once. I waited for her answer, but she didn't reply and carried on walking slightly faster. I sighed. Oh well, at least I knew my pod hadn't been blown up yet. If I got to Cardiff, it would either be at Torchwood already, or I'd just have to wait until I turned up with it. So, next thing to do: find a way to get to Wales, without any money or transport. Hmm.

I made my way to a post office after a further fifteen minutes walking. It was old-fashioned for the twenty-first century, and a bell tinkled as I opened the door. Inside it was small and there was an elderly couple behind the counter.

"How can we help you, dear?" The woman smiled at me.

"Hello," I replied. "I was just wondering if you had a phone book?"

"Yes, of course," she said happily. "I'll just go and fetch it for you."

"Thank you." I nodded, walking further into the room. OK, I said I was going to be independent, but I did need a little help. The only number I could remember was the one for Martha's phone on the TARDIS (I'd memorised it dedicatedly after the week with Torchwood), and I wasn't about to call that one and ask for the Doctor's help straight away. I wanted to prove to him and myself that I was capable of travelling on my own, so I had to contact someone else I trusted.

"Here you are, dear." The woman said as she returned, passing me a thick book over the counter.

"Brilliant, thank you," I smiled, and opened it immediately. "H, H, H, H…" I muttered to myself as I flicked through. I stopped on the right pages, leaning over the book and scanning the names. Harington, Harish, Hark, Harker… Harkness! J Harkness, Torchwood Three, Bute Town, Cardiff. I grinned and entered the number into Rory's phone.

"Captain Jack Harkness?" The American voice sounded into my ear.

"Hello, Captain!" I started. "I don't know whether you know me yet-"

"Jenny?" His shocked voice exclaimed.

"Yes?"

"I haven't heard from you in so long!" He laughed. "Not since Angelo-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop right there!" I interrupted. "Spoilers!"

"Oh, right, sorry," he replied. "So, how are you?"

"I'm good, listen," I started. "I need to get to Cardiff."

"Right?"

"But I've got no money or anything."

"OK."

"What do you suggest?"

"Get a cab, tell the driver to take to you Torchwood. I'll pay when you get here."

"Really? Oh, Jack, you are brilliant!"

"Yeah, I know, I can't help it." He chuckled.

"Oh, shut up," I continued. "OK, so, weird question now."

"Go on."

"When was the last time you saw the Doctor?" He paused.

"Uhh… about a year ago." He replied.

"Not in 2008 at all?" I asked.

"No." He confirmed.

"Right," I smiled. "OK, I don't know when I'll get there, I don't exactly know where I am."

"Sounds like you." Jack chuckled.

"Oi!" I snapped jokily. "I'll see you later, Harkness."

"Bye, Jen."

The drive from wherever I was to Cardiff took an hour and fifteen minutes exactly. I told the driver exactly what Jack told me, and that I had a friend who was going to pay when we reached the Bay. He seemed quite content with that once I'd flashed him a winning smile. Urgh, humans. Jack also said that he hadn't seen the Doctor for a year, which meant that the planets in the sky hadn't happened yet, which meant I would have to hang around Torchwood until then. I had no way of knowing how long that would be, and I couldn't exactly go around asking. I'd have to half-explain it all to Jack, though, without telling him about his future. That was going to be a difficult task.

"There you go, love. That'll be £175 off your mate." The driver announced suddenly as he pulled the taxi along the kerb. I jumped out of my thoughts and looked out of the window. Finally somewhere I recognised: the great golden building, apparently called the Millennium Centre. And, stood in front of it, was a man wearing a big grey coat. I grinned and hopped out of the car, waving across to Jack. He smiled and strode over, wrapping his arms around me in an instant. I did flinch when we touched, not really surprisingly, but I got over it quickly and enjoyed the hug.

"'Scuse me, love?" The driver interrupted. "I need that cash."

"Jack?" I said, smiling up at one of my closest friends.

"Sure," he replied, giving the driver his best grin. "There you go, my good man. Compliments of Torchwood."

"Cheers, mate." The man said, snatching the wad of notes from Jack's hand and climbing back into his taxi.

"Hm, friendly guy," Jack commented as the car pulled away. "Anyway. It's good to see you."

"And you, Captain." I grinned.

"So, what brings you to Cardiff?" He asked as we began to walk towards the hub hand-in-hand.

"Well, I need something." I replied, thinking hard about my wording.

"And what's that?"

"Transport."

"Any transport, or a something more specific?"

"One I know will be turning up at some point," I said. Jack didn't reply. I looked up at him, and he was waiting expectantly for me to continue. "OK, I can't tell you everything," I sighed. "But sometime this year, _something _is going to happen."

"Oh, now I know my whole future!" Jack replied sarcastically.

"Shut up," I giggled. "OK, I'm going to tell you something now that you can't tell anyone. Not Martha, or Gwen, and especially not the Doctor. Got it?"

"OK."

"Right," I took a deep breath. "This year, there will be an invasion."

"OK," Jack said slowly. "What's going to invade?"

"Can't tell you that," I replied. "But I can tell you that it will start with planets in the sky."

"Planets in the sky? That's impossible, Jen." He shook his head.

"I've already been through it, you think I'm making it up?" I snapped back.

"Sorry. OK, so planets in the sky. Go on."

"Once the planets appear, a pod will arrive outside Torchwood." I continued.

"And who will be in that pod?"

"Well," I sighed. "Me."

"You?"

"Yes," I paused. "But a _very _young version. I won't know you yet. I won't know anything about Earth, and I'll be looking for Dad."

"Right," Jack said as we reached the cabin door on the docks. "So when that Jenny arrives, you will take the pod."

"Exactly." I smiled, and followed Jack inside.

"Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones," He called once we'd reached the hub. "Meet Jenny." OK, I didn't think this through. I forgot that Ianto would still be there. I watched as he and Gwen emerged from the monitors, both with curious expressions which turned into welcoming smiles when they saw me.

"Hello." Gwen said.

"Hi, Gwen." I replied, staring at Ianto. It was surreal. With Charlie, I didn't see him- you know. I wasn't even witness to him disappearing with the Time Lords back to Gallifrey. So when I met him again at the bus stop, alive, it didn't feel strange. But Ianto… I watched his last breath, and I saw his cold body laid still. Yet there he was! Stood smiling warmly in front of me: living, breathing.

"Jenny's a time traveller," Jack started to explain, taking off his coat and flinging it on to a chair. A painful reminder of Dad. "She knows about something that's going to happen, and she needs to be here when it does."

"OK." Ianto nodded. I was still struggling to tear my eyes from him, and it didn't go unnoticed. He frowned.

"Jen?" Jack asked quietly.

"Sorry," I muttered, and shook my head. _Pull it together, Jenny!_ "OK, so I don't know exactly when this thing is going to happen, but we'll all know when it does," I paused. I was going to have to tell them more than I planned. "And once I'm gone, I'll come back."

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked.

"I told you Jenny travels in time," Jack injected. "A younger version of her will arrive as she leaves."

"And baby Jenny won't know you." I added.

"Baby?" Gwen questioned.

"Yes," I nodded. "Well, not in the human sense. I looked the same as I do now, but technically I was that young."

"Wait-" Ianto and Gwen started, looking entirely baffled. Well done, Jen. Now they're suspicious. Brilliant.

"Doesn't matter," Jack said loudly, shooting me a look. "That's all any of us need to know. No more questions."

I looked at the clock, which read eight a.m., and wandered over to Jack's office where he was sorting through papers. I'd spent some time with Gwen and Ianto before they went home during the night and that morning, cutting short conversations in fear of revealing too much information about their futures. I'd decided that I couldn't rely on myself to not blurt out something stupid, so talking to Jack was safer. He wasn't very open, and it was easier to follow his lead. He would stop me from going into too much detail.

"Hello, Jenny." He smiled.

"Jack," I replied, leaning against the door frame. "What are you up to?"

"Just paperwork," he said, shuffling some in his hands as he spoke. "You know, the boring part of the job." He chuckled.

"Would I know?" I asked suggestively, raising my eyebrows as I walked closer to the desk.

"I guess not." He replied, smiling up at me. Suddenly, I felt a rumble from beneath my feet and above my head. I started low, then grew and grew until everything in Jack's office was shaking. I looked at him, and he frowned back with worry just as the Earth gave an almighty jolt. I was thrown forwards into the desk, no papers to soften the blow as they all flew down to the floor. Jack disappeared behind it, a couple of his filing cabinets toppling as the tremors stopped.

"Jack?" I called.

"Jenny?" He replied, getting to his feet. "What was that? Was it the rift?"

"No, I think…" I said as I accepted Jack's hand to help me up. "I think it was what we were waiting for."

"OK," He grinned. "All systems go. Gwen, Ianto? You OK?" We rushed out to see the pair of them on the ground, papers flying around out there, too.

"No broken bones," Ianto replied, rubbing his head. "Slight loss of dignity. No change there, then." I giggled as I went to help him stand.

"The whole of the city must have felt that," Gwen cried. "The whole of South Wales!"

"We should take a look outside," Jack muttered, swinging his coat around his arms as he ran to the doors. "Jenny!"

"Coming!" I replied, and followed him out.

"OK, so we need to watch for me outside," I said quickly to Jack as we walked briskly back to the hub. "I'll go with Ianto down to reception, he will meet Jenny, then I can get my pod once she's walking up to you lot."

"We've got CCTV on the docks." Jack replied as we hurried down the stone corridors. I was right about the planets. When we went outside the sky was dark. Just as I'd seen once before, at a day old, a year and two months previous in my personal timeline, were twenty six planets, big and small, floating in the atmosphere above Earth.

"Good." I smiled as we entered the hub. Gwen and Ianto were stood by one of the screens.

"OK, Ianto," Jack called. "I need CCTV on the docks right now. Live."

"Yes, boss." He replied. I rushed over and watched the screen as he switched it on, a dark image of the docks appearing. No pod yet, though.

A little later, I was pacing up and down the length of the hub, fed up of waiting for myself. Ianto was stood patiently by the monitor, and I thought he was still watching the CCTV. I was walking past him again when he let out a loud and enthusiastic laugh, making me jump.

"Ianto!" Jack barked at him. "CCTV, now!"

"It's funny though." He chuckled, and switched the screen back from some kind of comedy chat show. On the wooden panels of the docks, sat my pod.

"OK, I'm here." I said, and stepped closer. I felt Jack rush out of his office to join us.

"You're still inside it." He muttered.

"I think I was unconscious for a while before I got out…" I breathed, my eyes on the screen. Suddenly, the door was pushed open and a figure hopped out: a blonde girl, wearing a green T-shirt and dark trousers. I watched myself looked up to the sky and chuckle.

"I look pretty good," I giggled, before leaping into action. "Right, come on, Ianto. Reception, now." I pulled him away from the screen and ran towards the doors.

"Good luck, Jenny!" Jack called across the room.

"And you, Jack," I grinned. "Bye, Gwen!"

"What am I doing?" Ianto asked me seriously. We had stopped in the room behind the reception desk, listening through the door to baby Jenny.

"Go and talk to her," I whispered. "But don't act like you already know me."

"Right." Ianto nodded, and walked confidently through the door.

""Hi!" I heard myself say. "I'm Jenny. Am I on Cardiff?" I sniggered.

"On Cardiff?" Ianto replied. "You're in Cardiff, not on it." He paused. "Are you British?"

"British?" Baby Jenny asked. "I don't know. I was born on Messaline-"

"Wait here," Ianto said, and pushed the door open again. "Jenny, shall I send you up?" He whispered to me.

"Yes, go for it!" I whispered. He smiled back, and closed the door again.

"My boss would like to see you." I heard him tell baby Jenny calmly. I waited for another few seconds until my footsteps echoed away down the stone corridor to the hub, then I opened the door.

"Brilliant, Ianto!" I grinned, and threw my arms around his neck. "As per usual."

"Good luck." He said in my ear. I smiled, and thought about saying something, to reassure him. I hesitated, while hugging him tighter, knowing that this was probably the very last time I would see him. Again. He pulled away fairly quickly, possibly a little unnerved, seeing as he had only just met me.

"Better get back up there." He muttered, and rushed past me. I smiled to myself before running out of the door towards my pod, and jumped inside. The seat was still warm. I flicked a few switches as I settled down, and turned on the engines. OK, so I couldn't travel in time, but it was better than nothing.

"Off we go." I giggled to myself, and carefully lifted the pod up as not to hit the cabin. I let go of a deep breath and smiled, zooming up and around the planets, dodging each one, and finally leaving them behind.

_One and a half Earth weeks later…_

I knocked on the door tentatively. That meeting was either about to go brilliantly or terribly. Perhaps I should have contacted them first? No, I would have ended up offending them in some way, then I definitely couldn't have visited.

"OK, breathe, Jen," I murmured to myself. "They're only humans. You've spoken to hundreds of them. They're no different, come on." The door opened slowly. A woman was stood behind it: a little taller than me, blonde, with milky brown eyes. She was around fifty-five in human years, I guessed.

"Hello!" I said loudly. _OK Jenny, calm down. Less of the Doctor-y hype will do nicely. _The woman frowned and pushed the door forwards slightly.

"No no, please," I said, putting my hand on it to stop her. "Sorry. I'm Jenny." I smiled. She sniffed and reopened the door.

"Hello." She said quietly. Her voice croaked, as if it hadn't been used much recently. There was a pause.

"Can I come in?" I asked nervously. _OK, don't screw this up, Jen. You're doing good. _

"Sure." She replied, and stepped aside for me to enter the hall. I turned and smiled.

"You're Mrs King, right?" I asked.

"Yes, I am," She replied. "Please, go on through." I nodded and followed to where she was pointing, to a door halfway along the hall. I walked in to a spacious living room, a wide window in front of me showing the rest of the neighbourhood. A TV sat in the corner, and there was a cream sofa and two chairs facing it. A table stood in the centre, and shelves around the walls held many books, as well as some greeting cards. I walked over to them.

_'We are terribly sorry for your loss, love from Ashley and Craig xx'_

_'He was a lovely boy. Joe, Ellen, Robert & Josh xxxx'_

_'In our thoughts. Love Esther, Sarah and the girls xxx'_

"Would you like a drink?" Mrs King asked, and I span around to face her.

"No, thank you." I smiled. Another pause.

"Please, sit down," She said, gesturing to the sofa as she gingerly took a place on one of the chairs. "My husband is just coming."

"Oh, good." I replied, settling into the sofa. _This is good, Jen. Keep going. _After a few seconds, I heard footsteps trudging down the stairs, and the door opened. A tall man in his late fifties stood in its place: dark hair, blue eyes, slim build. And behind him, another man who looked similar, but he was around twenty eight at a guess. I stood up immediately and held out my hand.

"Hello, I'm Jenny." I said, shaking the older man's hand first.

"Hello." He replied.

"Hi, I'm Tommy." The younger man smiled, it not reaching his eyes.

"This is my husband, Jim," Mrs King said as I sat back down. "And my son."

"Nice to meet you." I nodded at them. Jim sat on the arm of his wife's chair, Tommy on the other side of the sofa. Yet another awkward pause.

"We assume you're here for Charlie." Jim said suddenly. I looked up.

"Yes," I replied. "Yes, I am."

"Were you a friend of his?" Mrs King asked. I paused.

"Yes, yeah. A friend." I nodded, looking down at my hands. _No time like the present, Jen. _"Actually, a little more than a friend." Charlie's mother gasped.

"He didn't tell us about a girlfriend." Jim told me.

"Oh, Charlie, you nut." Tommy chuckled next to me, looking up at the ceiling.

"No no, I wasn't his girlfriend," I explained. "We travelled."

"Oh?" Mrs King breathed.

"Yeah, all over the place, for nearly a year" I grinned. "He was brilliant." The three of them smiled wistfully, which turned into confusion soon after.

"When did you do this?" Jim asked with a frown. I opened my mouth to answer, then stopped._ You've screwed up. Congratulations, Jenny Smith. Urgh._

"Charlie was only in New York for two months, and he lived here before that." Tommy said.

"Right, right," I groaned. _Go on, then. Fix that._ "Uhh…"

"Why did you come here?" Jim started. "Is this a joke? Some British thing we wouldn't understand?"

"No, I'm not British-" I tried.

"Jim, please-" Mrs King injected, her head in her hands.

"Our son is dead!" He yelled, standing up. Everything fell silent. I looked around at the family: Jim King on his feet, a distraught look in his eyes; Mrs King next to him, her shoulders shaking as she cried into her hands; Tommy King, Charlie's big brother, sunk low into the sofa, covering his eyes. _You've really screwed this up._

"I know," I mumbled, trying to hold back the tears myself. "I know. Please, listen to me. I'm not lying. I know this sounds mental, but it's all true. Charlie was my best friend. We travelled: him, me, and my Dad. We saw things you wouldn't believe, saved things you couldn't imagine. Charlie was incredible, and he never knew it. We did, of course we knew, but he didn't. He saved me," I paused, looking down at my hands. "And he died. And now my Dad isn't here, either," I sniffed. "I'm sorry, I never should've come, I'll just go." I stood up quickly to leave, but Mrs King stopped me.

"No, please," she said, gripping my arm. "Please, don't go," she paused. "It sounds like you're hurting bad, too." I paused, looking down at Charlie's mother. I could see him in her. They had the same blonde hair, the same compassion, the same shy quality. But facially, Charlie was like his dad. I turned to Jim.

"He looks like you." I said involuntarily. Jim's features softened, and he sat back down. I took that to mean I should, too.

"It's been a week since they released the list of the dead." Tommy said quietly. Nobody replied. We sat in silence for three minutes, until I heard the front door open.

"Mom?" A female voice called. Five seconds later, the woman opened the living room door. She was blonde, too, and her face was almost identical to Charlie's. I breathed in sharply as I studied her features. It was obvious that she was Charlie's sister. The only difference were her brown eyes, which were the same as her mother's.

"Oh," she said when she noticed me. "Hello. Who is this?"

"Jenny." I smiled, shaking her hand.

"Jenny was Charlie's friend." Mrs King told her. She looked at me softly.

"Oh," she mumbled. "I'm Amanda, his sister."

"Hi," I replied, and turned back to the whole King family as Amanda took the other chair. I decided to break the silence then. Not talking wasn't getting me anywhere. "Charlie told me about all of you," I said. "He told me that you two, Tommy and Amanda, were both older than him. And you, Jim. You are a lecturer at Yale. And Mrs King-"

"Jenny." She corrected. I paused, returning her knowing smile. Charlie never told me I shared his mother's name. That must have been painful for him.

"Jenny," I restarted. "You work in a school." I paused. "He loved you all. I could see it on his face, the way he talked about you."

"Jenny," Tommy said. "How did he die?"

"Tommy-" Jim started.

"No, dad! They won't tell us, how else are we supposed to know what happened to him? Jenny was obviously there!" They all paused.

"Were you there, Jenny?" Amanda asked.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Would you like me to tell you the truth?" They did stayed silent. I assumed that meant yes, so I took a deep breath. _Here we go. Word this carefully, Jenny. _

"You all believe me, right?" I asked them.

"Of course." Jenny nodded.

"OK," I said. "What I'm about to tell you is going to seem mad, but please trust me," they stayed quiet. "Charlie isn't dead yet."

"What?"

"Well, where is he?"

"What's he doing?"

"Why didn't he tell us?"

"Listen, listen," I said loudly. "He got into trouble. I won't go into that, but he can't contact you. It would put you in danger," I paused, waiting for any more arguments, but they didn't come. "Right now, he's in London."

"Is that where you met him? Is that where you're from?" Tommy asked.

"Yes and no," I replied. "Yes to the first one, no to the second. I met him on a bus, eleven months ago," I paused. "For me. Right now, it hasn't happened to him yet, and it won't for another… oh, at least five months," All four of Charlie's family looked entirely bewildered. I took another deep breath. "I'm a time traveller."

"That's it, out of my house!" Jim shouted, getting to his feet again.

"Jim, let her speak." Jenny said calmly.

"Come on, Jen!" He groaned, making me flinch at the shortened name. "You don't really believe this!"

"Not necessarily, but after the Daleks, I don't know what to believe any more!" She yelled back. Everyone went silent, yet again, and Jim sat back down.

"Thank you, sorry," I sighed. "My Dad and me landed in London, and got on the bus, just for an adventure. And there was Charlie," I smiled to myself. "There was – will be – an incident, and Charlie must have made an impression on me. I invited him to travel with us," I grinned. "We went everywhere. And he was brilliant, that genius boy," I giggled at the memories flowing through my mind. "Then we came back to London, Christmas 2009. Something happened – will happen – to the entire planet, and Charlie helped us stop it. He helped save the Earth. I was… _stuck _with the ones technically causing everything, about to be killed. And Charlie got me out, but they took him instead. He saved my life." I looked up at Jenny, who was smiling proudly.

"Oh, come on!" Jim shouted suddenly. "You don't believe this, do you?" Charlie might have looked like his father, but he was nothing like him in personality.

"Mr King," I interrupted, standing and striding over to him. "Let me show you." I placed my fingers on either side of his head, closing my eyes.

"What are you doing?" He snapped.

"Shhh." I focused entirely on my memories and Charlie's father's mind. I'd seen Dad do this many times, it couldn't be that difficult. I felt around in my head for the same feeling that I got when Jack and me spoke telepathically. Ah, there! I pushed my thoughts forwards, into the next mind. _OK, start with who I am_: stepping out of the progenation machine, Dad and Martha and Donna in front of me, getting shot, death, living again, leaving Messaline, travelling with Dad, the Daleks and Davros, putting Earth back in its place… travelling: Jackson Lake, Cybermen, New New York, Torchwood, the 456, Jack, the TARDIS, Barcelona, Peladon… _Right, Charlie next_: the bus, San Helios, Christina, Charlie, sand, the wormhole, UNIT, Kataa Floko, Sarah Jane, the Trickster, Jack, Gwen, Rhys, cybership, Kataa Floko again, sunset, diamonds, forest, birds, Time Lord Victorious, Flane, Allison, Edsel, the Red Carnivorous Maw, Queen Thema, Elizabeth I, the Phosphorus Carousel, the Ood, the Master, Wilf, the Silver Cloak, Minnie, the Naismith mansion, the Vinvocci, their ship, Gallifrey, Rassilon…

I let go of Jim and opened my eyes. He was staring at me with shock, but I could tell he finally believed me.

"My son," he breathed. "Is a hero."

"Yes." I whispered, smiling at him. He grinned back, chuckling just like Charlie used to, with tears in his eyes.

"Show them." He mumbled, pointing around at his family. I nodded, and moved to Jenny.

"Ready?" I asked her.

"Sure." She replied, and I repeated the sequence again. After that, I moved on to Amanda, and finally Tommy. I sat with the family for the rest of the day, happily exchanging stories of our travels and his childhood. I hardly noticed the time passing by.

_Sixty-three planets later…_

I was in an intergalactic bar, chatting animatedly with several Zocci, when it happened.

"What are you drinking, gorgeous?" He asked me. I turned around to face the man, who was leaning over the bar confidently, smirking to himself as if he'd already charmed me. I took an instant disliking to him.

"Nothing you can afford, sir." I replied, eyeing his dirty clothes. He was wearing tight trousers with what once might have been a red jacket, white stripes across the front of it.

"Ooh, sir!" The man exclaimed. "You must be one of those uptight girls, you know. But never mind! I like a challenge," he turned to the barman. "Seven shots, and whatever the lady's having." When the barman passed him the shots, he downed them all in one.

"Wow," I said sarcastically. "You think that's going to impress me?"

"Well, I was hoping for a kind of casual interest, but if you _are _impressed…"

"I'm not."

"Oh, that sounds final."

"It is."

"And that."

"You're too old for me, I'm afraid."

"I don't mind."

"I do."

That sort of talk went on for around an hour before I even discovered the man's name. He introduced himself as Captain John Hart, rather arrogantly in my opinion, before asking for mine. Within a millisecond I decided that I wasn't going to tell him the truth, and in another I settled on the pseudonym Annie King. I was only talking to Captain John still because I'd noticed what was on his wrist: a vortex manipulator, like Jack's, and it must have been a working one for him to have travelled to the places that he'd boasted about for an hour. So, it took a while, and some stuff I'd rather not mention ever again in my life, especially not to the Doctor, but I left the bar with the vortex manipulator on my wrist. Plus a few notes in several different alien currencies that I took from Captain John's pocket, but I don't think he noticed that. Jack would have been proud!

With a vortex manipulator, I could go anywhere, any when! So that's exactly what I did. For several more weeks I went around the universe, visiting planets and people and rescuing civilisations and defeating creatures and running. But I returned to Earth regularly, finding and meeting some of Dad's old companions. The first I visited were Martha and Mickey, who I found out both worked for UNIT after the planets before going freelance. They battled aliens on Earth as a couple, not needing anyone else at all. They even invited me to their wedding, which I did attend, although just slightly late. Apparently you're not supposed to greet the bride and groom halfway through the ceremony, the time I arrived, but Martha said it was fine. They didn't expect any different from the Doctor's daughter. I also unexpectedly came across three of the Doctor's friends when I mistakenly landed in the 1800's: a Silurian, a human, and a Sontaran, named Vastra, Jenny, and Strax respectively. I got excited when Jenny told me her name, which was apparently exactly what the Doctor did too when he met her. According to Vastra, he jumped up and down like an ape and exclaimed that she shared her name with his daughter, and then went on to talk non-stop about me. That made me smile. I also tracked down a couple, Ian and Barbara Chesterton, in the early twenty first century. They were professors at the University of Cambridge, and they invited me to their home when I contacted them. Ian told me that they welcomed any friend of the Doctor's, and when I said I was the daughter of his tenth incarnation, they became even more enthusiastic. They asked me about him, and about our adventures. In return they told me about theirs with the first Doctor and his granddaughter, Susan. That surprised me. I'd seen Susan's name on a bedroom door in the TARDIS, but I never expected her to be related to me! Another person I found was an Australian woman in 1989. Her name was Tegan Jovanka, and I visited her in Brisbane where she was running an animal-feed company. She said it had only been five years since she left the Doctor in his fifth body. Tegan told me about both that incarnation and his fourth. According to her, the fifth one wore a piece of celery on his jacket, which didn't surprise me, going by his recent choice in attire… I hoped Amy made him ditch the bow tie by the time I met him again. I also found a woman called Melanie Bush after I dropped in on Sarah Jane, who directed me to her. I landed in 2010, where she was working with a charity linked to Africa. When I met her, she told me to call her Mel, and gave me the biggest smile after I told her who I was. She told me about her Doctors, the sixth and seventh, and their travels…

There was something I realised when I visited all these people. In every story I heard from Mel and Sarah Jane and Tegan and the Chesterton's and Vastra and Strax and Jenny and Martha and Mickey and Jack and everyone, there was one consistency: the Doctor. He was the same man, no matter what incarnation he was in, in every story including mine. In each and every single story, I could imagine Dad, my Doctor, saying and doing everything. Every Doctor was my Dad. So why was I denying the new regeneration, the one with the hair and the chin and the tweed, that title? Of course he was my Dad! He always was, and always will be. The Doctor was my father. End of story.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: So Jenny is back calling the Doctor Dad again :) Yay! Bit of Jack action, and an unexpected return from Ianto.. for those unfamiliar with the classic Who (like me) Ian, Barbara, Tegan & Mel's stories are correct to the best of Who wikipedia's knowledge :) also, virtual jammy dodgers for the first person to notice the Miracle Day reference :) Read & Review! xx**


	20. The Pandorica Opens

"You cannot stop us, human scum!"

"I'm not human," I said calmly, walking forwards. "I descend from an ancient race, destroyed in the depths of war."

"No race can compete with the glory of Sontar!"

"Is that right?" I questioned lightly. "Then let me ask you this."

"No questions! You have fought well, but your efforts were no competition for the Sontarans. You will be rewarded with a soldier's death."

"Do you lot know the Doctor?" I interrupted. The dozens of Sontarans in front of me paused.

"The Doctor?"

"I'll take that as a yes," I concluded. "Want to know how_ I_ know him?" _Silence._ "The Doctor is my father," _Immediate roars of disgust. _"And you all know that the Doctor will defeat you, every single time."

"The Doctor is not here!" The Commander cried.

"Well, yes, yep. You've got me there," I nodded, stepping closer to him. "But you don't know me. What do you think? Can the Doctor's daughter fight as well as him?" _More war cries. _"Let me answer for you. I am going to stop-" _Ring ring, ring ring, ring ring._ "Ooh, sorry," I paused, pulling Rory's phone from my pocket. "Unrecognised number. Excuse me, one tick." The Sontarans looked half confused and half disappointed as I put the phone to my ear.

"Hello, Jenny, Annie, whichever you like?" I sang.

"Oh, useless man!" A famous British voice groaned. "He never answers his phone!"

"Hello, Winston. Are you looking for the Doctor?" I asked.

"Yes, I am, and who might you be?"

"His daughter. Listen-"

"Excuse me-" The Sontaran started loudly. I put my finger up to his mouth instantly.

"I'm in the middle of a conversation!" I frowned, shaking my head at him. "With the Prime Minister. Honestly," I put the phone back to my ear. "Sorry, Winston, I'm with some very rude potatoes," They opened their mouths to begin a new roar. "Potatoes!" I repeated, giving them all a steely glare.

"Why am I talking to you and not the Doctor? Where is he?" Winston asked with frustration.

"He must be busy, the TARDIS re-routed the call to the next best contact," I explained quickly. "What have you got?"

"A message that must be passed on. It will be in the Royal Collection."

"OK. I'll make sure it gets to him," I replied. "But keep trying the number! You never know, you might get lucky. Goodbye, Prime Minister." I smiled and put the phone back in my pocket. That meant that once I'd found whatever the message was, I would see my Dad again soon. I'd missed him more than I thought I would, and not just his tenth incarnation. I was actually beginning to pine for the tweed.

"Right!" I said, turning back to the Sontarans. "Where were we?"

_One defeated Sontaran fleet later…_

I reappeared inside a huge building. The dark and the patterned windows indicated that it was once grand. All around me were frames covered in pieces of cloth. OK, so I was at the right place: the Royal Collection, but I did go a bit too far into the future. Going by the state of the building and the smell of the air… it was around 5145. Winston Churchill did not come from the 52nd century. I just hoped the message was still there.

I crept quietly around the building, looking underneath cloth at paintings every so often. I assumed that I would know which one was the message when I saw it. I kept walking down hallways, empty frames hanging next to the walls. I'd been wandering around for almost an hour, and so far hadn't found any-

"Argh!" I cried. "Who are you?" I'd turned a corner and walked straight into someone. The woman in front of me was a little taller, human, and appeared to be in her late thirties. She had lots of curly blonde hair, which I decided within a second that I was extremely jealous of.

"Jenny!" She spluttered.

"You know me?" I asked.

"Yes," She replied. "But you haven't met me yet, I take it?"

"Well, the question 'who are you' tends to give that away," I smiled. "Now, if you would excuse me, I need to find-"

"A message for the Doctor." The woman interrupted. I blinked.

"Yeah." She smiled knowingly and lifted up a piece of paper in her hand. It was an old painting, and I immediately knew that it was what I went there for. The TARDIS was painted in the centre, with swirls of blue and gold coming out and rushing around it, as if the box was exploding. Yep, Winston was right to call.

"I got the same phone call as you." The woman explained.

"So you know the Doctor? In the future?"

"And the present, and the past," she said lightly. "Jen, we need to get this to him as soon as possible." I winced. Only people who knew me well and were my closest friends shortened my name, and there were only three of those: Dad, Charlie and Jack. That woman must have been a significant person in my future.

"What's your name?" I asked her as we turned and rushed up the stairs on my right.

"River Song." She replied proudly, just as lights switched on around us.

"This is the Royal Collection, and I'm the bloody Queen," a woman stood at the top of the steps, holding a pistol, said. "What are you doing here?"

"It's about the Doctor, ma'am," River replied instantly. "You met him once, didn't you? I know he came here."

"The Doctor?" The Queen said with fondness, lowering the pistol a little.

"He's in trouble, we need to find him." I said quickly.

"Then why are you stealing a painting?"

"Look at it," River ordered, holding the paper up for the Queen to see. "We need to find the Doctor, and we need to show him this."

It was one week, an argument over vortex manipulators, another about Ancient Egyptian queens, one more about graffiti, several costume changes (on River's part) and a good amount of running later. I'd gotten to know River quite well during that time, and we had a natural friendly relationship. She was like a best friend/sister/aunt figure almost, but she wouldn't tell me who she was, despite the many times I asked. Every time she replied with "spoilers" and a wink. We were in a Roman camp in England, and we'd managed to grab a whole tent to ourselves thanks to River impersonating Cleopatra. Well, I assumed it was an impersonation. She tried to make me dress as Queen Nefertiti, but that was just one of the arguments I'd won. There was no way I was changing out of my comfortable clothes, especially not my trusty Converse. So, I settled as Cleopatra's personal assistant. I also pointed out that Cleopatra was dead at the time, but River laughed it off and said she needed to be someone famous. She rather enjoyed the time period, too. She said she had a thing for Romans, which was apparently a trait she got from her mother. We'd gotten there from the Royal Collection with my vortex manipulator, which was yet another squabble in which I came out on top. River wanted her own and she knew where she could get it. Dorium Maldova had acquired one, according to her, fresh off the wrist of a handsome Time Agent. Now, I wasn't the most innocent person when it came to whipping vortex manipulators off people's arms, but that 'handsome Time Agent' felt familiar. So, after a good half an hour of telling River that we didn't need another, she finally gave in. After that, we headed to the dawn of time because River had a plan. Dad wasn't answering his phone to either of us; neither Martha's nor the TARDIS number that River had was working. So the mysterious woman who I'd made a good friend in that week said that she knew how to get his attention. We landed on Planet One, right in front of the diamond cliff face. I remembered Dad saying once that it was the oldest cliff face in the universe, but at the time we were there it was new. River had a mischievous smile on her face as we stood admiring it.

_"What?" I asked her._

_"What?" She repeated._

_"River," I groaned. "What are you thinking?" She chuckled cheekily._

_"Your old man is not going to like this." _

That was the one argument I lost. So, 'hello sweetie' were the first and oldest words ever written in the universe, all because I couldn't stop River Song. That was a story I was not going to tell often.

"Hello sweetie." River said suddenly. I looked up from the Van Gogh painting I was examining again. In the entrance of the tent stood Dad and Amy, the latter smiling happily and the former with a slight frown.

"River, Jenny! Hi!" Amy said, stepping further inside and looking around at the Egyptian décor River had acquired.

"You two graffitied the oldest cliff face in the universe." Dad stated disapprovingly.

"Don't blame me!" I replied instantly.

"You wouldn't answer your phone." River accused as Dad turned his head to her.

"That's true," I nodded. "I told you to keep Martha's phone on you at all times, Dad."

"I was busy!" He paused. "You called me Dad!" He was smiling with genuine delight.

"Well, you are, aren't you?" I grinned as I stood up. He smiled, and two seconds later I jumped up for a hug.

"I've missed you." I giggled as I buried my face in the tweed.

"Ah, Jen," he replied. "It's not been the same." He set me back on my feet and chuckled.

"You kept the bow tie, I see." I groaned jokily.

"Bow ties are cool," He retorted, and I rolled my eyes. "What's this?" He was looking at the painting that was still in my hand.

"It's the reason River wrote on the diamond cliff face," I replied as he slowly unravelled the paper. "A painting. Your friend Vincent, one of his final works. He had visions, didn't he? We thought you should know about this one."

"Doctor?" Amy asked, looking over his shoulder at it. "Doctor, what is this?"

"The TARDIS." He murmured.

"Why is it exploding?" Amy questioned.

"We assume it's some kind of warning." River replied as she stood up.

"What, something's going to happen to the TARDIS?" Amy continued, oblivious to the worried look on Dad's face.

"Well, it might not be that literal." I said, trying to comfort Dad at the same time as answering her question.

"But this is where he wanted you," River explained. "Date and map reference on the door sign, see?"

"Does it have a title?" Dad asked.

"The Pandorica Opens." I answered.

"The Pandorica?" Amy asked. "What is it?"

"A box, a cage, a prison," River replied. "It was built to contain the most feared thing in the universe."

"And it's a fairy tale, a legend," Dad exclaimed, almost in denial. "It can't be real."

"Come on, Dad!" I argued. "Just because it's like folklore, doesn't mean it's wrong. Remember Amy's name? Amelia Pond: sounds fairy tale, but she's so much more than that." Amy smiled appreciatively.

"This isn't about Amy, Jen." He retorted.

"No, but the principle still-"

"Anyway, if it's real, it's here and it's opening, and it's got something to do with your TARDIS exploding, Doctor," River interrupted. "Hidden, obviously. Buried for centuries. You won't find it on a map."

"No, but if you buried the most dangerous thing in the universe, you'd want to remember where you put it." Dad replied after he grabbed a few scrolled maps from the side of the tent.

"OK, so somewhere you wouldn't forget in Roman Britain," I wondered aloud, glancing over his shoulder at the faint illustrations. "And something probably near here, going by Vincent's coordinates."

"What's near here? Where is here?" Amy asked. My eyes widened as I realised, and I looked between Dad and River excitedly.

"I think we might have discovered the secret of Stonehenge." Dad said lightly, yet somehow keeping a dramatic tone.

I was stood examining one of the stones that made up the most famous circle in history. Despite the unknown danger, I was thrilled to be there. I'd never seen the Stonehenge before, and the journey there on horseback was brilliant, too.

"How come it's not new?" I heard Amy ask.

"Because it's already old," River replied. "It's been here thousands of years. No one knows exactly how long."

"Earth's greatest mystery," I sighed, running my hand across the stone. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"It certainly is, Jen." Dad murmured, joining me by the stone I'd occupied. I heard Amy ask River about the last time she mentioned the Pandorica to them, and something about the Byzantium.

"Spoilers." River called to her, and Dad and me grinned at each other in amusement.

"How have you been?" He asked me quietly.

"Good," I replied. "Been all over the place: Arcadia, Pandatorea, the Library… and Earth, of course," I smiled. "Met some of your old friends." His face fell a little.

"You did?"

"Yes. Is it _that _bad?" I giggled at his expression.

"No, no. Of course not," he paused. "Who did you meet?"

"Dropped in on Captain Jack a few times," I shrugged. "Sarah Jane. She gave me some contacts. Tegan, Mel, the Chesterton's… oh, they told me some stories about you!" He said nothing, but his eyes focused on the stone said it all.

"All good things, Dad!" I laughed. "Brilliant things." He smiled, but shook his head simultaneously.

"How long?" He asked weakly. I felt my smile fade. I knew what he meant.

"Ten months," I replied. "I'm two now, Dad." He smiled at me, half with sadness and guilt, half with what I thought might have been pride.

"OK, if the Pandorica is here, it contains the mightiest warrior in history," he said loudly, walking into the middle of the circle. "Now, half the galaxy would want a piece of that."

"They'd fight over it." I called after a deep breath.

"Yes. We need to get down there." Dad finished.

It was dark three hours later, and I'd helped out by finding Dad's 'outside' lights in the TARDIS. It was the first time I'd been in that box for ten months, and she welcomed me when I stepped inside with a warm buzz in my head. It was totally different to the coral: bright, childish, and orange, but I figured that it really suited the eleventh Doctor. I'd get used to the new desktop, and just like Dad, the TARDIS had the same heart. She helped me find the lights fairly quickly, and within ten minutes I was back with Dad, River and Amy at the Stonehenge. After placing the lights around so that the centre of the circle was illuminated, I watched as River placed four devices on each corner of the Altar stone.

"Right then," she said. "Ready." We watched as the stone moved slowly to the side, revealing a dirty set of steps leading into an underground corridor, which was veiled in darkness.

"The Underhenge." Dad murmured as we stared down. He lifted his sonic screwdriver and the end lit up, creating a glow in front of him as he led us down the earthy steps.

"That's new." I commented, eying the screwdriver from behind Dad.

"Yes," he breathed. "It regenerated." I smiled to myself as I continued to follow him, Amy behind me and River at the rear. The tunnel became narrower suddenly, earth and roots in the walls almost touching my arms, before opening into a wide, slightly cleaner, space. It was blocked further by a huge cobweb-covered solid gate. I stepped slowly towards it as Dad and River headed straight for two tall torches on either side of the space, Dad lighting them with the screwdriver. I placed my hand on the gate, moving a layer of dust away before pressing my ear against it. There was definitely something behind. I turned and watched Dad as he removed the bar from across the middle and leaned sideways against it, grinning at Amy and me, and pushed the doors open. They creaked a little as we stepped inside. More cobwebs and curtains of dust hung from the ceiling, and the only light other than our torches came from sporadic spots at the back of the room. In the centre, sat ominous and important, was a perfect cube. It appeared to be made of some kind of stone, and reached well above all our heads. On each side was a patterned circle engraved into the material.

"It's a Pandorica." Dad said, answering an unspoken question.

"More than just a fairy tale." River grinned. I beamed eagerly back at her, but Dad just looked confused at us. He stepped forwards gingerly. I smiled reassuringly at Amy and started towards the Pandorica, too, but paused when I heard a clang. I looked across to Dad, whose foot was wavering next to something on the ground. It was an arm made of metal, and there was only one being in the universe who had a limb like that. A Cyberman.

"Dad…" I whispered. Whatever was inside the Pandorica must have been incredibly powerful and strong to destroy something like that.

"I know," He mumbled back, and continued forwards, putting his hand on the Pandorica when he reached it. "There was a goblin, or a Trickster, or a warrior," he began. "A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world."

"How did it end up in there?" Amy asked.

"You know fairy tales," Dad replied. "A good wizard tricked it."

"I hate good wizards in fairy tales. They always turn out to be him." River said, nodding over to Dad and handing Amy her torch. I smiled at her in agreement.

"So, it's kind of like Pandora's Box, then?" Amy pondered casually. "Almost the same name."

"Sorry, what?" Dad asked from the side, where he was putting his torch in a bracket.

"The story. Pandora's Box, with all the worst things in the world in it," she continued. "That was my favourite book when I was a kid." Dad turned and stared at her. "What's wrong?"

"Your favourite school topic, your favourite story," he said suspiciously. "Never ignore a coincidence, unless you're busy."

"In which case, always ignore a coincidence." I added.

"So can you open it, Doctor?" River called, looking up at the height of the box.

"Easily," he replied. "Anyone can break into a prison, but I'd rather know what I'm going to find first."

"You won't have long to wait. It's already opening," she said, examining a device she had against the Pandorica wall. I walked quickly over to her and peered at the screen. "There are layers and layers of security protocols in there, and they're being disabled one by one."

"Like it's being unlocked from the inside." I said.

"How long do we have?" Dad asked.

"Hours at the most." River answered.

"What kind of security?"

"Everything, it looks like," I replied, watching River's screen. "Deadlocks, time stops, matter lines…"

"What could need all that?" He wondered aloud.

"What could get past all that?" River added.

"Something we wouldn't want to be friends with." I sighed.

"Think of the fear that went into making this box," Dad continued, disappearing behind the side of the Pandorica. "What could inspire that level of fear? Hello, you. Have we met?" River's device bleeped suddenly.

"But why would it start opening now?" I asked, poking my head around the side to look at Dad.

"No idea." He replied. I heard Amy cough forcefully behind us.

"And how could Vincent have known about it?" She questioned. "He won't even be born for centuries."

"Hold on, the stones!" I exclaimed, grinning at Dad.

"These stones are great big transmitters, broadcasting a warning to everyone, everywhere, to every time zone. The Pandorica is opening." He finished, walking around the pillars and pointing the screwdriver at them.

"Exactly!" I beamed.

"Doctor, Jen, everyone everywhere?" River called.

"Even poor Vincent heard it in his dreams," Dad continued. "But what's in there? What could justify all this?"

"Doctor, everyone?" River repeated.

"Anything that powerful, I'd know about it." He said.

"Why don't you know, then?" I asked.

"I don't know." He replied, and I rolled my eyes.

"Doctor, you said everyone could hear it," River said loudly. "So who else is coming?" We paused, and Dad turned to face us again slowly.

"Oh." He breathed.

"Oh? Oh what?" Amy snapped.

"If Stonehenge is basically a transmitter, shouldn't we be able to fold back the signal?" I said quickly, accidentally ignoring Amy's question. River was already working with her device against the Pandorica again.

"Doing it." Dad replied, sonicking the pillars.

"Doing what?" Amy asked.

"Stonehenge is transmitting, Amy." I replied, stood next to the Pandorica with River.

"And it's been transmitting for a while, so who heard?" River finished.

"OK, should be feeding back to you now," Dad called hastily. "River, what's out there?"

"Give me a moment." She murmured.

"River, quickly! Anything?" He repeated.

"Around this planet there are at least ten thousand starships." River said.

"What?" I exclaimed, leaning in closer to the screen.

"At least?" Amy cried.

"Ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, I don't know," River continued fairly calmly. "There's too many readings."

"What kind of starships?" Dad asked.

_"Maintaining orbit." _A voice sounded through the earth. A croaking, robotic voice.

_"I obey. Shield cover compromised on ion sectors." _Another said.

"Daleks," Amy stated. "Those are Daleks."

_"Scan detects no temporal activity."_

_"Soft grid scan commencing."_

_"Reverse thrust for compensatory stabilisation."_

"Daleks." I mumbled. "I thought the metacrisis destroyed them all!" I hadn't seen any since Davros and the planets in the sky, and I didn't miss them.

"Daleks, Doctor." River said.

_"Launch preliminary armaments protocol."_

"Yes. OK, OK, OK, OK," Dad started, evidently coming back to his senses. "Dalek fleet, minimum twelve thousand battleships, armed to the teeth. Ah! But we've got surprise on our side! They'll never expect four people to attack twelve thousand Dalek battleships. Because we'd be killed instantly, so it would be fairly short supplies," he tossed his screwdriver in the air and hit himself in the head with it. "Forget surprise."

"Yeah." I nodded, rolling my eyes at him.

_"Course correction proceeding."_

"Hold on, that wasn't Daleks." I said, my eyes widening.

"It wasn't, Jen," River replied. "Doctor, Cyberships."

"No, you two, Dalek ships," Dad called. "Listen to them. Those are Dalek ships."

"It's both, Dad!"

"Yes, Dalek ships and Cyberships." River nodded.

"Well, we need to start a fight, turn them on each other. I mean, that's easy. It's the Daleks, they're so cross!" Dad said quickly.

"Sontaran. Four battle fleets."

"Sontarans! Talk about cross, who stole all their handbags?"

"Terileptil, Slitheen, Chelonian, Nestene, Drahvin, Sycorax, Haemogoth, Zygon, Atraxi, Draconian… they're all here for the Pandorica."

"What are you?" Dad said, turning back to the box. "What could you possibly be?" There was a soaring whir from above, and I looked at River. That couldn't be good. Dad sprinted back to the steps in an instant, and we followed.

"Amy, come on!" I called back to the red-haired girl, who was staring at the box. She turned around and dropped the flaming torch she was holding, running to join us back outside.

The sky was still dark, but it was bursting with spaceships. They were zooming around excitedly and I watched them in disbelief.

"What do we do?" Amy asked.

"Doctor, listen to me," River started quickly. "Everything that ever hated you is coming here tonight. You can't win this, you can't even fight it. Doctor, this once, just this one time, please, you have to run. You have to take Jenny and get out of here."

"Me?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes, both of you." She nodded.

"Run where?" Dad asked.

"Fight how?"

"You don't know us as well as you think, Doctor Song," I smiled. "We don't run away."

"Quite right, Jen," Dad said, fiddling with a pair of binoculars that had appeared from somewhere in his pockets. "The greatest military machine in the history of the universe."

"What is? The Daleks?" Amy asked.

"No. No, no, no, no, no," he replied. "The Romans."

"So what's this got to do with the TARDIS?" Amy asked. We were back underground to continue scanning the Pandorica, minus River, who had returned to the Roman camp to gather an army.

"Nothing, as far as we know." I replied to Amy from the box.

"But Vincent's painting, the TARDIS was exploding," she continued. "Is that going to happen?"

"One problem at a time," Dad said, brushing it off. "There's forcefield technology inside this box. If I can enhance this signal, Jen?"

"It could be extended all over Stonehenge." I finished.

"Correct," Dad nodded. "Could buy us half an hour."

"What good is half an hour?" Amy exclaimed.

"There are fruit flies living on Hoppledom Six that live for twenty minutes and they don't even mate for life," he paused. "There was going to be a point to that. I'll get back to you."

"We will be eagerly awaiting your answer, Dad." I giggled. There was a pause as Dad and me continued scanning the Pandorica with the screwdriver and my vortex manipulator.

"So, Doctor. Are you proposing to someone?" Amy asked suddenly.

"Excuse me?" I exclaimed, spinning around to her.

"I found this in his pocket." She told me, holding out a small red box.

"No. No, no, that's uh… a memory," Dad stuttered, walking over to her with an anxious look. "A friend of mine. Someone I lost. Do you mind?" I frowned in question over Amy's shoulder.

"It's weird. I feel, I don't know, something." She mumbled.

"People fall out of the world sometimes, but they always leave traces. Little things we can't quite account for. Faces in photographs, luggage, half eaten meals, rings. Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And if something can be remembered, it can come back." Dad whispered. What was he talking about? Did Amy forget something, or someone? The way Dad was talking, like he was suggesting the idea to her, made it seem so.

"So was she nice? Your friend?" Amy asked Dad suddenly, slipping out of her trance. He paused sadly.

"Remember that night you flew away with me?" He asked her.

"Of course I do."

"And you asked me why I was taking you and I told you there wasn't a reason," he continued. "I was lying."

"What, so you did have a reason?"

"Your house."

"My house." Amy groaned.

"It was too big, too many empty rooms," Dad explained. "Does it ever bother you, Amy, that your life doesn't make any sense?" In a second, I heard a shot fired somewhere nearby. I immediately looked around for the source, and spotted the Cyberman's arm on the ground. Dad grabbed my arm and pulled me with him and Amy behind the Pandorica away from the energy being fired.

"What was that?" Amy cried.

"It's the arm." I replied.

"The arm?"

"Yeah, the Cyberarm." I nodded.

"Are you sure, Jen?" Dad asked.

"Yes!"

"What's a Cyberarm?" Amy exclaimed.

"Arm of a Cyberman." I said.

"And what's a Cyberman?"

"Oh, sort of part man, part robot," Dad explained. "OK, I need a proper look. Got to draw its fire, give it a target."

"How?"

"You know how sometimes I have really brilliant ideas?" He smiled.

"Oh no you don't!" I shouted, but he had already ran out into the open.

"Sorry!" He cried, before waving his arms around in front of the Cyber limb. "Look at me, I'm a target!" I rolled my eyes as he leapt behind one of the pillars, just missing the Cyberarm's shot.

"You were right, Jen." He said.

"I know!" I called back.

"The organic part must have died out years ago," he continued, thinking aloud. "Now the robot part is looking for, well, fresh meat."

"What, us?" Amy asked.

"It's just like being an organ donor, except you're alive and sort of… screaming." I explained with disgust.

"Oh, that's OK then." She replied sarcastically.

"I need to get round behind it, could you two draw its fire?" Dad asked.

"What, like you did?" Amy snapped as I nodded.

"We'll be fine if we're quick." I said.

"Yes, and it's only got one arm, literally!" Dad added, grinning with a double thumbs up to us. I grinned back, and pulled Amy along behind me. She screamed the whole time, and only stopped once Dad had pounced on the Cyberarm. I watched as he hugged it tightly to him, sonicking the insides.

"Doctor?" Amy called.

"Scrambled its circuits, but stay where you are, it could be bluffing." He replied.

"Bluffing? It's an arm!" She exclaimed disbelievingly.

"I said stay where you are!" He barked. "And you, Jen."

"I didn't say anything!" I argued.

"Quiet, thinking." He muttered, focusing on the arm. I sighed and turned back to Amy behind me, who had taken a few steps back and crossed her arms. She looked like a human toddler who couldn't get her own way, and I smirked.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing." I smiled. She looked at me for a second, before switching her gaze to the floor. I followed it. Winding itself slowly around her boot was a metallic wire, which was attached to a whole Cyber _head _a couple of feet away.

"Doctor?" She cried, her face full of panic, before her whole body was yanked to the ground.

"Amy!" I heard Dad yell as I ran the few steps forwards. Amy had the head clutched in her hands, and for the moment it had stopped attacking. I knelt beside her, just in case anything restarted. It wasn't likely that it was over. It fizzled, and I took a deep breath. _Here we go. _The face popped open like a pair of doors, unveiling a dirty skull inside. Amy screamed again as it fell out, and I whacked the metal shell out of her hands as it began snapping open and shut. It hit the ground loudly and paused, giving me and Amy time to scramble back to our feet. I let out a breath as it slinked away like an insect, but I knew that it still wasn't done with us yet.

"Dad?" I called out. He didn't reply, but a tiny shot flew past me and hit Amy in the neck. I instantly pulled the dart out of her skin.

"Amy, are you OK?" I asked quickly. "How do you feel? What's it done to you?"

"You will be assimilated." A Cybernetic voice said, and I twisted to see that it came from the head.

"Yeah?" Amy slurred. "You and whose body?" I watched in horror as a figure appeared in the room. It stumbled through the shadows and into the light. A Cyberman. A broken, disfigured Cyberman, with no head and only one arm. It was covered in rust and dirt, I noticed, and it bent over and picked up its head, fixing it on to its shoulders. My eyes widened and I instinctively stepped in front of Amy, who was becoming increasingly woozy. The Cyberman focused on us and reached out with its one remaining arm, stepping forwards drunkenly. I pushed Amy backwards, away from the horrific thing in front of us. Every time it stepped forwards, we stepped back. Eventually we hit a wall, and in front of us were two double doors. I jumped forwards and pulled them shut straightaway, plunging us into relative darkness.

"What do we do now?" Amy garbled. We could still hear the Cyberman just on the other side.

"Um…" I replied uncertainly. "Dad will save us. He always does." At my words, a sword stabbed through the closed door, and it creaked open. The Cyberman was skewered to it. I turned to face the person stood in front of us, expecting to see Dad with his tweed and his bowtie, but it wasn't. The centurion removed his helmet, revealing a familiar face.

"Hello, Amy." Rory said with a smile. I frowned at him, but before I could ask why he was a Roman, Amy fainted behind me. We grabbed her before she hit the ground, and Rory carried her back into the Pandorica room. I watched him lay her gently on a stone, a delighted smile playing on his lips. Spatial genetic multiplicity, maybe? No, he knew Amy. It was actually him.

"Rory," I started, shaking my head. "What are you doing here?" He turned to me.

"I- don't really know." He stammered.

"You should be in Leadworth," I continued, pacing around. "You're Amy's boyfriend, from Leadworth, England, Europe, Earth, the Solar System… how do you end up a _Roman_? You can't just be in the 21st century then the next minute the 2nd."

"I know." He said.

"It doesn't make sense!" I cried.

"Sir, the man's coming round." Another centurion said to Rory.

"Jen, Amy?" I heard Dad shout. "Where are they?"

"Over here, Dad!" I called. "We're OK. Amy's unconscious, but that's all." He suddenly appeared around the corner and headed straight for Amy, running the screwdriver up and down her sleeping form.

"OK. Yes, she's sedated, that's all. Half an hour, she'll be fine," he said, and turned to me. "You're OK?"

"Absolutely fine, Dad." I smiled.

"Good. OK, Romans. I was just wishing for Romans. Good old River. How many?" He continued.

"Fifty men up top, volunteers," Rory said. "What about that thing?"

"Fifty? You're not exactly a legion." Dad complained, apparently not noticing Rory there.

"Your friend was very persuasive, but it was a tough sell." He replied.

"Yes, I know that, Rory, I'm not exactly one to miss the obvious," Dad moaned, and I snorted. "But we need everything we can get. Okay, Cyberweapons. This is basically a sentry box, so headless wonder here was a sentry. Probably got himself duffed up by the locals. Never underestimate a Celt."

"Dad?" I interrupted.

"Hush, Jen. Thinking," he said. "Why leave a Cyberman on guard, unless it's a Cyberthing in the box. But why would they lock up one of their own? Okay, no, not a Cyberthing, but what? What?" He faced Rory. "No, I'm missing something obvious, Rory. Something big. Something right slap in front of me. I can feel it."

"Yeah, I think you probably are." Rory replied with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'll get it in a minute." Dad sighed, and walked off. Rory looked at me.

"_Three, two, one._" I mouthed, and we heard a clatter of weapons being dropped. I smiled in amusement as Dad returned, staring at the impossible centurion. He walked right up to him, barely an inch away, and poked him in the bronze chest.

"Hello again." He said quietly.

"Hello." Rory replied nervously.

"How've you been?" Dad asked hesitantly, as if he was running everything over inside in his head.

"Good, yeah, good," Rory nodded. "I mean, Roman."

"Rory," Dad began. "I'm not trying to be rude, but you died."

"What?" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know," Rory said. "I was there."

"You died and then you were erased from time," Dad continued. "You didn't just die, you were never born at all. You never existed."

"What?" I repeated.

"Erased? What does that mean?" Rory asked.

"How can you be here?" Dad questioned.

"I don't know!" Rory spluttered, turning to Amy, still unconscious. "It's kind of fuzzy."

"Fuzzy." Dad murmured.

"Well, I died, and turned into a Roman. It's very distracting," Rory said. I raised my eyebrows at Dad in question, but he just frowned. "Did she miss me?" Suddenly, I felt the ground begin to shake. We ran to the Pandorica quickly, which was glowing. The circular patterns on each side of the box were lighting up a shade of green, and they were moving.

"What is it? What's happening?" Rory asked.

"The final phase," Dad replied. "It's opening." We watched for a few more seconds, before my phone (well, technically Rory's) started buzzing in my pocket, and Rory himself ran outside to see what was happening there.

"River!" I called down the phone.

"You're surrounded," she stated. "Have you or the Doctor got a plan?"

"Yes. Well, probably. Most likely," I replied, glancing at Dad, who was staring up at the box. "Listen, we need the TARDIS. Could you bring her here? We need equipment."

"Yes." River said simply.

"Thank you, Doctor Song." I replied, and put the phone back in my pocket.

"What are you? They're all here, all of them, all for you. What could you possibly be?" I heard Dad saying to the Pandorica.

"I'll distract them, then, shall I?" I called across to him. He didn't reply, so I sighed. _Make this a good one, Jen._

"Hello, Stonehenge!" I began, speaking into my vortex manipulator, which acted like a loudspeaker. "Who takes the Pandorica, takes the universe. But bad news everyone!" I paused to leap on to the Altar stone. "Because guess who's here? Team Doctor! Ha!" What was above my head scared me: hundreds and thousands and millions of spaceships containing Rassilon knows what, but I knew I had to be brave. _Be a soldier, Jen. Don't show weakness._ "Listen, you lot, you're all whizzing about, and it's very distracting. Could you all just stay still a minute because I am talking!" To my surprise, they did stop, and the sky was suddenly silent. I grinned. "The question of the hour is: who's got the Pandorica? Answer: we do. Next question: who's coming to take it from us? Come on! Look at me!" I felt someone jump up on to the stone next to me, and I turned to see Dad, bow tie and all, grinning down at me like Jack faced with all eleven Doctors at once.

"Yes, look at her! Look at me! Look at us! No plan, no back-up, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else. We don't have anything to lose!" He yelled up at the alien-filled night sky. "So, if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceships, with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way! Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then, and then! Do the smart thing!"

"Let somebody else try first." I finished. There was a rumble, and I watched the sky intently. In an instant, the spaceships dropped back, and they retreated to a further distance together. I laughed in relief, and clung to Dad's hands.

"Oh, my Jenny!" He said as he gathered me up in his arms and hugged me tightly. "My wonderful, wonderful girl!" I giggled happily in his ear as I squeezed his neck. After a couple of seconds we let go and hopped off of the Altar stone hand in hand.

"That'll keep them squabbling for half an hour," Dad said to Rory and the centurions around him. "Romans!"

We made our way back down to the Pandorica straight away.

"Yeah, that was brilliant-" Rory started, as we scanned the sides of the box.

"Thank you!" Dad and me said simultaneously.

"Didn't I tell you, Rory! My daughter is marvellous! He chuckled.

"Yeah, right, but they're still out there," Rory stumbled. "What do we do now?"

"If we can stop whatever's in this box getting out, then they'll go home." Dad said.

"Right." I heard a stumble from a few feet away, then spotted a tall, red-haired figure slouching towards us.

"Rory, I'm sorry," Dad began. "You're going to have to be very brave now." Amy walked straight past her boyfriend with a fed-up expression on her face.

"Oh, my head." She whined.

"Ah!" Dad said, indicating for her to open her mouth.

"Ah." She repeated, rolling her eyes as she did as she was told.

"Just your basic knock-out drops," Dad chuckled, knocking her chin lightly. "Get some fresh air, you'll be fine."

"Is it safe up there?" She asked.

"Probably not, but it's fresh." I smiled. Dad and me turned back to the Pandorica.

"Oh, you're the guy, yeah?" I heard Amy say tiredly. "The one who did the swordy thing."

"Yep." Rory replied after a pause. I looked at Dad worriedly.

"Well, thanks for the swording, nice swording."

"No problem," Rory said, and I heard Amy's footsteps going towards the exit. "My men are up there. They'll look after you."

"Good. Love a Roman." She called. There was a pause.

"She doesn't remember me," Rory mumbled. "How can she not remember me?"

"Because you never existed," Dad replied. "There are cracks. Cracks in time. There's going to be a huge explosion in the future, on one particular day. And every other moment in history is cracking around it."

"So how does that work? What kind of explosion? What exploded?"

"Doesn't matter," Dad said. "The cracks are everywhere now. Get too close to them and you can fall right out of the universe."

"So Rory fell through a crack and then he was never born?" I asked.

"Basically." Dad nodded.

"Well, how did I end up here?" Rory asked.

"I don't know, you shouldn't have. What happened? From your point of view, what physically happened?"

"I was in the cave, with you and Amy. I was dying, and then I was just here, a Roman soldier," Rory spluttered. "A proper Roman. Head full of Roman stuff. A whole other life, just here like I'd woken up from a dream. I started to think it was a dream, you and Amy and Jenny and Leadworth. And then today, in the camp, the men were talking about the visitors. The girl with the red hair. I thought you'd come back for me, but she can't even remember me!"

"Oh, shut up!" Dad shouted with a smile.

"What?" Rory asked.

"Go get her." Dad threw him the red box Amy had earlier. So that's where it came from.

"But I don't understand," Rory said. "Why am I here?"

"We don't know, Rory," I replied. "Because you just are."

"The universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous, and sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen and we call them miracles, and that's the theory," Dad continued. "Nine hundred years, never seen one yet, but this would do me. Now get upstairs. She's Amy and she's surrounded by Romans. I'm not sure history can take it." I giggled as Rory ran up the steps and disappeared.

"Right, that almost resolves that mystery," I said to Dad. "Now this one."

"Yes, Jen," he replied. "You asked River for the TARDIS, didn't you?"

"Yep," I nodded, walking back to the Pandorica. "Actually, she should be here by now."

"Pass me your phone." He ordered, holding his hand out.

"A please would be nice," I said as I gave it to him. "I've met Slitheen with more manners than you."

"Oh, shut up," He laughed as he put the phone to his ear. "River! The TARDIS, where is it? Hurry up." I listened to Dad's side of the conversation intently.

"What are you even doing there?"

"Something's using her memories. Amy's memories." That didn't sound good.

"You said something had been there."

"If they've been to her house, they could have used her psychic residue. Structures can hold memories, that's why houses have ghosts. They could've taken a snapshot of Amy's memories. But why?"

"Projections, or duplicates."

"What are?" I interrupted.

"They might think they're real, the Romans, Jen," Dad continued. "The perfect disguise. They actually believe their own cover story, right until they're activated."

"Why? Who'd do that? What for? It doesn't make sense!"

"River? River? River, what's happening?"

"You're flying it wrong."

"Where are you? What's the date reading?"

"You need to get out of there now, any other time zone. Just go."

"Well, then shut down the TARDIS. Shut down everything!"

"But how? Why?" I jumped at a high-pitched screech echoing through the chamber, and turned to see Romans stood around the entrance, all slumped forwards. I watched them fearfully, stepping closer to Dad. After a few seconds, they all stood up straight, but their movements were robotic.

"Dad." I muttered, tugging his tweed sleeve.

"Not now, Jen," he said. "Listen to me, River, just land her anywhere. Emergency landing, now. There are cracks in time. I've seen them everywhere, and they're getting wider. The TARDIS exploding is what causes them, but we can stop the cracks ever happening if you just land her."

"Dad!" I repeated, still watching the activated Romans. What could they be? Obviously not real centurions. Like Dad said, duplicates? Some kind of robot copies? Or something driven by another consciousness? Suddenly, I was distracted by a bright white light behind me. I turned around to see the Pandorica opening at the edge.

"Well now," Dad said. "Ready to come out, are we?" I gazed at the light blindly, waiting for whatever was inside to reveal itself.

"OK, just walk out of the doors," Dad said down the phone. "If there's no one inside, the TARDIS engines shut down automatically. Just get out of there."

"Run!" I looked back at the fake Romans, the light from the Pandorica becoming too much. They were all facing us, their hands pointing forwards, but the fingers were dropped down to open a gun inside.

"Dad!" I cried. "They're Autons!" He turned around in an instant and clutched at my hand.

"Amy!" He yelled. "Jen, she's outside."

"I know. Maybe she's OK? Maybe they're all coming down here and leaving her?" I replied, backing away from the plastic centurions.

"Yes, maybe," he murmured, before stepping directly in front of me. "Leave Jenny, take me!" He called at the advancing Autons. In a second they had grabbed him by the arms and carried him away, and in the next they gripped me, too. We were dragged quickly into the centre of the group.

"The Pandorica is ready." One of them announced.

"Ready? What does that mean?" I asked.

"Do you mean it's open?" Dad added. Suddenly a white Daleks appeared as if from nowhere nearby us.

"You have been scanned, assessed, understood, Doctor." It said, and two more materialised behind it.

"Scanned?" Dad asked. "Scanned by what, a box?"

"Your limits and capacities have been extrapolated." The white Dalek said, and more aliens began to beam down into the chamber: Cybermen, Sontarans, Judoon…

"The Pandorica is ready." The Sontaran commander said.

"Ready for what?" I exclaimed, struggling against the Romans' grip.

"Ready for the Doctor." The Dalek answered. I turned to the box, which was completely open. Inside was a chair, metal straps and cuffs displaying that the person sat inside was not supposed to get out. And they said it was ready for Dad, which meant…

"NO!" I screamed repeatedly, as the two Autons holding Dad pulled him towards the Pandorica. All I could do was watch his feet scuffed the ground as he desperately tried to get away. The pained and terrified look on his face broke my hearts, and had I not been held incredibly tightly by the plastic, there would have been nothing to stop me from destroying every single being in that room to save him. Dad was shoved into the chair. I watched his wrists being clamped down and heard his scared protests. All his enemies gathered in front of the Pandorica once he was secure, glaring at my Dad.

"You lot, working together. An alliance. How is that possible?" Dad asked breathily.

"The cracks in the skin of the universe." A Dalek said.

"All reality is threatened." A Sontaran added.

"All universes will be deleted." A Cyberman finished.

"What? And you've come to me for help?" Dad questioned desperately.

"No! We will save the universe from you!" The Sontaran snapped.

"From him?" I cried.

"All projections correlate. All evidence concurs. The Doctor will destroy the universe."

"No, no, no. You've got it wrong." Dad tried.

"The Pandorica was constructed to ensure the safety of the Alliance." The Cyberman said.

"A scenario was devised from the memories of your companion." The Dalek explained.

"A trap the Doctor could not resist." The Sontaran exclaimed gleefully.

"The cracks in time are the work of the Doctor. It is confirmed."

"No. No, no, not me, the TARDIS. And I'm not in the TARDIS, am I?" Dad cried.

"Only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS."

"Please, listen to me!

"You will be prevented."

"Total event collapse! Every sun will supernova at every moment in history. The whole universe will never have existed. Please, listen to me!" Dad yelled. I screamed loudly, trying to break free from the grip on my arms.

"Seal the Pandorica." The Cyberman ordered.

"No! Please, listen to me!" Dad continued. "The TARDIS is exploding right now and I'm the only one who can stop it! Listen to me!" His voice carried through the chamber as the Pandorica closed, taking the white light and my Dad with it. I screamed again, nearly out of breath, as a Cyberman stomped up to me.

"You will be deleted." It stated. I looked up, speechless for one of the few times in my life, and the metal hand touched my shoulder. I felt the surge of energy course through my bones, then I was dead.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: And 8000 words later... Read & Review! :) xx**


	21. The Big Bang

I felt myself cascading into the Void, blackness and weightlessness and nothingness becoming clearer and clearer. Maybe I wasn't going to come back. Maybe that was it: I was actually, permanently dead. That possibility never entered my mind before… not because I thought I couldn't die, I just hadn't wondered about it. Jenny Smith: dead at the hands of a Cyberman. Dad would be locked inside the Pandorica forever. River was trapped in the TARDIS… the universe had been wiped from existence, so the box wouldn't have anywhere to go. And Rassilon knew what happened to Amy and Rory. What an end for the new Team Doctor.

Suddenly, there was a tug on my whole being, my hearts, my soul. Some kind of energy was pulling me back, and I was moving away from an eternity of nothing. All I could see were golden swirls of regeneration energy in front of my eyes, inside my head. I wasn't dying. I was coming back again. I had a chance to rescue Dad from the Pandorica, save River, release the TARDIS, and find out where Amy and Rory were.

I breathed in sharply and sat up. I was still in the Pandorica chamber, and the box itself was in the same place as before. The atmosphere was intensely silent. The Daleks and Cybermen and Sontarans and Slitheen and Judoon and every creature that was there earlier remained, but not in their original forms. I stood up and brushed the dust off my hands, then stepped closer to one of the Daleks. It looked like it had been fossilised. In locking Dad in the Pandorica, they'd destroyed themselves.

"I still don't trust you." I whispered into the eyestalk.

"Jenny?" I heard someone call. I snapped my head around to the source and raised my vortex manipulator threateningly, even though it would have been a pretty useless weapon. By the steps, I saw a figure draped in shadow.

"Rory?" I asked.

"Yeah." He replied, stepping forwards. The skin on his face looked pale and slightly pink around the eyes.

"You survived?" I said.

"Yes," he mumbled. "And you, too."

"Yeah," I nodded, then paused. "Dad's in the Pandorica."

"I know. He gave me this." I watched as Rory produced Dad's green sonic screwdriver in his hand.

"How? When?" I exclaimed.

"I don't know, he just appeared in front of me." Rory spluttered.

"Right, OK," I sighed. "Let's get him out." Rory handed me the screwdriver as we stood in front of the box and gazed at it. After a couple of seconds, I fumbled with the settings and pressed the button. The edge of the Pandorica reopened, the white light pouring out again, before we were presented with Dad sat in the metal chair with a confused expression. Once the box was fully open, the clamps around his head and wrists released.

"How did you do that?" He asked.

"Screwdriver." I smiled, waving it in front of his face.

"No, but, how did you get it?"

"You gave it to me." Rory replied. Dad reached into his inside pocket and pulled out another screwdriver.

"No, I didn't." He said.

"You did, look at it." Rory retorted.

"Paradox," I muttered. "Maybe you from the future did it, Dad." He reached his screwdriver forwards and tapped it against the one in my hand, and a spark flashed between them.

"Temporal energy," Dad murmured. "Same screwdriver at different points in its own time stream."

"So you did give it to Rory." I said.

"Yes, you were right, Jen. Me from the future. I've got a future, that's nice!" He smiled, before looking at something over my shoulder. "That's not." I followed him back to the fossilised Dalek.

"Yeah, what are they?" Rory asked curiously.

"History has collapsed. Whole races have been deleted from existence," Dad explained. "These are just like after-images."

"Echoes… fossils in time. The footprints of the never-were." I added.

"Uh, what does that mean?" Rory questioned.

"Total event collapse," Dad replied. "The universe literally never happened."

"So how can we be here? What's keeping us safe?"

"Nothing. Eye of the storm, that's all. We're just the last light to go out." Dad said. We stayed looking upon the Dalek for a few more seconds.

"Hold on, where's Amy?" I suddenly realised, frowning around.

"I killed her." Rory said with a small sob. We had made our way back up to the Stonehenge, and it was still dark. There weren't even any stars to lighten the atmosphere. Rory led us a few metres away from the stones, where there was a figure laid underneath a red cloth. Dad knelt down next to it and gently pulled the cover off Amy's face.

"Oh, Rory." He sighed as I felt my hearts drop.

"Doctor, what am I?" Rory frowned, his voice full of despair.

"You're a Nestene duplicate," Dad replied, getting to his feet. "A lump of plastic with delusions of humanity."

"But I'm Rory now!" He cried. "Whatever was happening, it's stopped. I'm Rory."

"That's software talking." Dad said, turning his back on the almost-broken man. His voice was so cool that even I felt the iciness hit me in surprise.

"Can you help her? Is there anything you can do?" Rory asked desperately.

"Yeah, probably, if I had the time." Dad replied indifferently. What was he doing?

"The time?" Rory exclaimed.

"All of creation has just been wiped from the sky. Do you know how many lives now never happened? All the people who never lived?" Dad said, a glint in his eye as he glanced at me for a fraction of a second. _Oh, I see! _"Your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe." I watched as the fury built in Rory, and I knew that Dad's tactics were working. He reached for Dad's shoulder, pulled him around, and punched him straight in the face… it was a shot I would have been proud of.

"She is to me!" Rory yelled.

"Welcome back, Rory Williams!" Dad laughed, straightening himself back up. "Sorry, had to be sure. Hell of a gun-arm you're packing there!"

"Isn't he just?" I giggled as Dad turned around again and stepped towards Amy's body on the ground.

"Right, we need to get her downstairs," he continued. "And take that look off your plastic face, Rory. You're getting married in the morning!"

Dad and Rory carried Amy down to the Pandorica while I led the way, holding the sonic screwdriver aloft to light our path.

"So you've got a plan, then?" Rory asked as I held the screwdriver in my teeth, helping Dad put Amy's wrists into the clamps.

"Bit of a plan, yeah," Dad began. "Memories are more powerful than you think, and Amy Pond is not an ordinary girl. Grew up with a time crack in her wall. The universe pouring through her dreams every night. The Nestenes took a memory print of her and got a bit more than they bargained for, like you. Not just your face, but your heart and your soul," He placed his fingers against Amy's temple to get into her mind. "I'm leaving her a message for when she wakes up, so she knows what's happening." He continued with his eyes lightly closed. He finished in a couple of seconds, and we stepped back from the box, me changing the screwdriver settings quickly before locking Amy inside.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Rory exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"Don't worry, Rory. She'll be fine." I smiled.

"We're saving her. This box is the ultimate prison. You can't even escape by dying, it forces you to stay alive." Dad explained.

"But she's already dead." Rory argued.

"Well, she's mostly dead. The Pandorica can stasis-lock her that way. Now, all it needs is a scan of her living DNA and it'll restore her." Dad replied.

"Where's it going to get that?"

"In about two thousand years."

"She's going to be in that box for two thousand years?"

"Yeah, but we're taking a shortcut." I said, fiddling with the strap on my wrist.

"Jenny's vortex manipulator," Dad told Rory, watching me set the coordinates attentively. "Rubbish way to time travel, but the universe is tiny now. We'll be fine."

"Hey!" I snapped.

"So hang on. The future's still there, then? Our world?" Rory asked.

"A version of it, not quite the one you know. Earth alone in the sky. Let's go and have a look," Dad replied, pointing at the vortex manipulator. "You put your hand there. Don't worry. Should be safe."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Rory muttered. We looked up at him sympathetically.

"She'll be fine. Nothing can get into this box." I reassured him.

"Well, you two got in there." He retorted.

"Well, there's only two of us. I counted." Dad smiled.

"This box needs a guard," Rory sighed, looking up at it. "I killed the last one."

"No. Rory, no. Don't even think about it." Dad said after a pause.

"She'll be all alone." Rory mumbled.

"She won't feel it."

"You bet she won't."

"Two thousand years, Rory," Dad tried. "You won't even sleep. You'd be conscious every second. It would drive you mad."

"Will she be safer if I stay?" Rory asked seriously. We blinked. "Look me in the eye and tell me she wouldn't be safer."

"Rory, you-" Dad started.

"Dad." I interrupted, looking at him with pleading eyes.

"Yes. Obviously." He sighed after a few seconds.

"Then how could I leave her?" Rory said simply, making it sound like there was no other option. Although I had to admit, if it were Dad in there, I would have done exactly the same.

"Why do you have to be so… human?" Dad groaned after a pause.

"Because right now, I'm not." Rory replied.

"Listen to me. This is the last bit of advice you're going to get in a very long time," Dad started quickly, holding my wrist. "You're living plastic, but you're not immortal. I have no idea how long you'll last. And you're not indestructible. Stay away from heat and radio signals when they come along. You can't heal, or repair yourself. Any damage is permanent. So, for God's sake, however bored you get, stay out of-"

"-Trouble," We had disappeared from the Pandorica chamber, and were now in a dim museum hall, facing two red-haired humans. "Oh. Ah, two of you. Complicated."

"Two Pond's! As if things couldn't get any worse." I teased, grinning at the pair of them.

"Exterminate! Weapons systems restoring." A very croaky voice said from behind them.

"Oh, wait. Yes they can." I corrected myself. A fossilised Dalek was making its way slowly towards us.

"Come along, Ponds!" Dad called, grabbing my hand and one of the Pond's and pulling us into a Middle Eastern display.

"Exterminate!" I snorted as Dad bumped into one of the dummies and put its fez on his own head, smiling like a kid at Christmas. He looked ridiculous.

"What are we doing?" Amy asked.

"Well, we are running into a dead end, where I'll have a brilliant plan that basically involves not being in one." Dad explained speedily.

"What's going on?" A familiar male voice called out from somewhere behind the Dalek.

"Get out of here," Dad shouted to him. "Go! Just run!"

"Drop the device!" The Dalek ordered, turning to face the man. I squinted to see what was in his hand.

"It's not a weapon," I called out. "Scan it. It's not a weapon, and you don't have the power to waste."

"Scans indicate intruder unarmed." The Dalek said. There was a thud as the man dropped the torch.

"Do you think?" He said sarcastically, and I saw his hand open. A white beam appeared from it and hit the Dalek's eyestalk.

"Vision impaired! Vision-" It cried, before stopping. The dust cleared around it, and the man with the gun-hand became clearer.

"Amy!" Rory called.

"Rory." She replied, and they ran up to each other eagerly.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. It just happened."

"Oh, Shut up." I looked away as they started kissing rather enthusiastically.

"Yeah, shut up, because we've got to go. Come on." Dad said, oblivious to the joyful reunion in front of him.

I waited. Two thousand years I waited for you." Rory said.

"No, still shut up."

"And break. And breathe. Well, somebody didn't get out much for two thousand years." Dad commented as we awkwardly tried to avert our eyes.

"I'm thirsty," Amelia said, tugging on Dad's jacket. "Can I get a drink?"

"Oh, it's all mouths today, isn't it?" He groaned jokingly.

"The light," I said, distracting from the topic at hand. "The light from the Pandorica, it must have hit the Dalek." We stared at it. I ran my eyes over its whole grey form, but stopped by the weaponry. One was moving.

"Dad." I said, drawing his attention to it.

"Out! Out! Out!" He shouted instantly, pulling us all into another room.

"So, two thousand years. How did you do?" I asked Rory as he rushed inside behind Amy. Dad was messing in another display, picking up various objects.

"Kept out of trouble." Rory shrugged.

"Oh. How?" Dad said as he waved a mop around haphazardly.

"Unsuccessfully," Rory replied. "The mop! That's how you looked all those years ago when you gave me the sonic." Dad jumped at Rory's sudden outburst.

"Ah. Well, no time to lose, then," he smiled. "Jen, give me your vortex manipulator."

"I thought it was a rubbish way to time travel?" I grinned as I handed it over.

"Shut up!" He chuckled, then disappeared with the fez on his head and the mop in his hand. The next second, he returned with a grin and shoved the mop through the door handles where we'd run from.

"Oops, sorry." He muttered to himself.

"How can he do that?" Amelia asked, stood between Amy and me. She looked absolutely bewildered. "Is he magic?"

"He wishes." I grinned. Without a word, he vanished again. In another second, he reappeared.

"Right, let's go then," he said, running between and slightly past us. "Wait! Now I don't have the sonic. I just gave it Rory two thousand years ago."

"Amy's top pocket?" I suggested.

"Ah! I knew I kept you for something, Jen." He smirked.

"Oi!" I snapped, but he'd already gone again.

"Right then," he said once he returned, and went to Amy's pocket straight away to get the screwdriver. "Off we go! No, hang on. How did you know to come here?" He was bent down to Amelia's height, and she showed him a leaflet from her pocket.

"Ah, my handwriting. Okay." Dad said, throwing it over his shoulder and rushing to the stand a few feet away. Disappeared, reappeared with a drink.

"There you go. Drink up." He said, passing it to Amelia.

"What is that? How are you doing that?" Amy asked, looking pointedly at Dad's wrist.

"Vortex manipulator. Cheap and nasty time travel. Very bad for you. I'm trying to give it up." He replied.

"And it's mine." I added, following Dad up the set of steps.

"Where are we going?" Amy asked.

"The roof." He answered, and I almost ran into him as he stopped abruptly. I looked up to find out what the hold-up was, and found myself stunned. At the top of the steps was someone new. A figure covered in black dust, the clothes smoking as if they had been roasted. I could hardly tell what colour their hair was amongst the soot, but I knew exactly who the person was.

Me.

I stumbled back as she collapsed down the stairs, falling to a heap just in front of Dad's feet. He knelt down to the girl quickly and quietly.

"Jenny, it's you. How can it be you?" Rory asked, breaking the tense air.

"Doctor, is that Jenny?" Amy added.

"Yeah, it's me," I sighed, coming out of my stunned silence. "Me from the future." I recoiled as Jenny suddenly sat up and clutched Dad's shoulders, whispering into his ear. She fell back down quickly, but Dad grabbed her head before it smacked the hard floor.

"Twelve minutes." I heard Dad mutter.

"Are you? I mean, is she, is she dead?" Amy stammered.

"What? Dead? Oh, yes," I said loudly. "Of course she's dead. OK, I've got twelve minutes, right Dad? That's good."

"Twelve minutes to live? How is that good?" Amy asked.

"Oh, you can do loads in twelve minutes." Dad exclaimed, joining in with my charade, even though I could see the worry through it. "Suck a mint, buy a sledge, have a fast bath. Come on, the roof."

"We can't leave her here." Rory argued.

"Oh, good. Are you in charge now? So tell me, what are we going to do about Amelia? Dad said, turning back around from near the top of the steps.

"Where did she go?" Amy asked as I glanced around. Nope. The little Pond was definitely gone.

"Amelia?" Rory called.

"There is no Amelia. From now on, there never was. History is still collapsing." Dad barked.

"But how can I still be here if she's not?" Amy asked.

"You're an anomaly," Dad began. "We all are. We're all just hanging on at the eye of the storm. But the eye is closing, and if we don't do something fast, reality will never have happened. Today, just dying is a result. Now, come on!" We all rushed off after him, and I caught up fairly quickly.

"A twice-anomaly." I mumbled when I reached his side.

"Only you, Jen." Dad said, smiling down at me, then turned back to Amy and Rory. "Move it! Come on!"

"What, it's morning already? How did that happen?" Amy exclaimed when we got to the roof. The sky was dark yellow, and in the centre was a huge ball of flame.

"History is shrinking." I replied.

"Yes, Jen. At least someone's listening to me," Dad said. "The universe is collapsing. We don't have much time left." He strode forwards, pulling out his screwdriver and pointing it at the satellite dish on the side.

"What are you doing?" Rory asked as Dad took the dish off its pole.

"Looking for the TARDIS." He replied.

"But the TARDIS exploded."

"Okay then, I'm looking for an exploding TARDIS."

"I don't understand," Amy said, shaking her head. "So, the TARDIS blew up and took the universe with it. But why would it do that? How?"

"Good question for another day. The question for now is, total event collapse means that every star in the universe never happened. Not one single one of them ever shone. So, if all the stars that ever were are gone, then what is that?" Dad replied, pointing up at the fiery ball in the sky.

"The TARDIS?" I murmured.

"But that's the sun." Rory stated with a hint of question.

"Is it?" Dad asked. "Well, here's the noise that sun is making right now." He held up the satellite dish and sonicked it. The beautiful, straining noise of the TARDIS filled my ears, calming me down for that short few seconds.

"That's my TARDIS burning up," Dad said. "That's what's been keeping the Earth warm."

"Doctor, there's something else." Rory added. "There's a voice." I listened intently.

"_I'm sorry, my love._" A faint voice whispered.

"I hear it." I nodded.

"I can't hear anything." Amy said.

"Trust the plastic." Rory replied sharply, pointing at his ear.

"_I'm sorry, my love. I'm sorry, my love. I'm sorry, my love._"

"Dad, that's River." I exclaimed.

"How can she be up there?" Amy wondered.

"It must be like a recording or something." Rory speculated.

"No, it's not." Dad called back to him.

"Of course, the emergency protocols," I said, suddenly realising. "The TARDIS has sealed off the control room and put her into a time loop to save her. She is right at the heart of the explosion."

"_I'm sorry, my love. I'm sorry, my love. I'm sorry, my love._" Dad looked at us.

"Back in a second." He disappeared from in front of us, and the next second, materialised behind with River on his arm.

"Amy, Jen! And the plastic Centurion?" She questioned.

"It's OK, he's on our side." Dad said.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I dated a Nestene duplicate once. Swappable head. It did keep things fresh," She said, removing her arm from Dad's. I snorted. "Right then, I have questions, but number one is this. What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?"

"It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool." Dad replied seriously. I rolled my eyes and glanced at Amy. She had a mischievous glimmer in her eye. I nodded, and she snatched the fez off Dad's head and threw it into the air. I span around as River pulled a gun out of her pocket and shot it, pieces of red flying into the atmosphere.

"Nice!" I laughed.

"Oh!" Dad shouted, disappointed. My grin evaporated from my face, though, as a figure slowly rose from underneath the parapet: the Dalek.

"Exterminate!"

"Run, run! Move, move. Go!" Dad yelled, pulling my away by the hand.

"Come on!" Rory shouted as we sprinted back inside, and Dad slammed the door to the roof shut.

"Can I have that back now?" I asked him, pointing at my vortex manipulator. "My wrist is getting lonely."

"Lonely?" Dad chuckled as he unstrapped it and passed it to me.

"Yes, lonely!" I giggled.

"Doctor, Jen, come on!" River called from a few steps down.

"Shush. It's moving away, finding another way in," Dad said, listening at the door. "It needs to restore its power before it can attack again. Now, that means we've got exactly four and a half minutes before it's at lethal capacity."

"How do you know?" Rory asked.

"Because that's when it's due to kill me." I said as I fumbled with my strap.

"Kill you? What do you mean, kill you?" River cried.

"Never mind." I sighed.

"How can that Dalek even exist? It was erased from time and then it came back." Dad questioned aloud, and we rushed down the white ladders to the museum halls.

"How?" Dad was still wondering when we reached a corridor.

"You said the light from the Pandorica." Rory said.

"It's not a light, it's a restoration field," Dad replied. "But never mind, call it a light. That light brought Amy back, restored her, but how could it bring back a Dalek when the Daleks have never existed?"

"When the TARDIS blew up, it caused a total event collapse. A time explosion. And that explosion blasted every atom in every moment of the universe. Except-" I continued.

"Except inside the Pandorica." Amy finished.

"The perfect prison. And inside it, perfectly preserved, a few billion atoms of the universe as it was. In theory, you could extrapolate the whole universe from a single one of them, like, like cloning a body from a single cell. And we've got the bumper family pack." Dad said.

"No, no. Too fast. I'm not getting it." Rory shook his head.

"The box contains a memory of the universe, and the light transmits the memory, and that's how we're going to do it." Dad smiled.

"Do what?" Amy asked.

"Relight the fire. Reboot the universe," He replied. "Come on!"

"Doctor, you're being completely ridiculous," River exclaimed. "The Pandorica partially restored one Dalek. If it can't even reboot a single life form properly, how's it reboot the whole of reality?"

"Hold on, what if we give it a moment of infinite power?" I suggested. "What if we can transmit the light from the Pandorica to every particle of space and time simultaneously?"

"Well, that would be lovely, dear, but we can't, because it's completely impossible." River snapped.

"Ah no, you see, it's not. It's almost completely impossible. One spark is all we need." Dad said.

"For what?"

"Big Bang Two!" He exclaimed. "Now listen-" Within a second, Dad was interrupted by the Dalek shooting at him, and I instantly stepped in front of him and got hit myself. I fell to the floor in pain, a weaker version of a Dalek's bullet coursing through my body.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"I told you not to do that again!" Dad cried, leaning over me with concern.

"Natural reaction." I struggled.

"Get back. River, get back now!" Rory shouted.

"Exterminate!" A shot from Rory's hand flew above my head and I heard it hit the Dalek.

"Jenny? Jen, it's me, River. Can you hear me? What is it? What do you need?" River said quickly, appearing above me. I couldn't answer her. I knew what I had to do, so I lifted my wrist and entered the coordinates into my vortex manipulator. River disappeared from in front of me, and instead I was faced with Dad, Amy, Rory and me at the bottom of the marble steps I was stood at the top of. I looked at them for a few seconds, before falling halfway down.

"Jenny, it's you. How can it be you?" I heard Rory say.

"Doctor, is that Jenny?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, it's me. Me from the future." I heard myself tell them. I opened my eyes and saw Dad a few inches from my face, so I reached up and grabbed the tweed on his shoulders, squeezing it tightly.

"Dad, you've got twelve minutes. The Pandorica. A spark. Big Bang." I managed to whisper in his ear before falling back down. Thankfully, Dad caught my head before it hit the floor.

"Twelve minutes." He muttered.

"Are you? I mean, is she, is she dead?"

"What? Dead? Oh, yes. Of course she's dead. OK, I've got twelve minutes, right Dad? That's good."

"Twelve minutes to live? How is that good?"

"Oh, you can do loads in twelve minutes. Suck a mint, buy a sledge, have a fast bath. Come on, the roof."

"We can't leave her here."

"Oh, good. Are you in charge now? So tell me, what are we going to do about Amelia?"

"Where did she go?"

"Amelia?"

"There is no Amelia. From now on, there never was. History is still collapsing."

"But how can I still be here if she's not?"

"You're an anomaly. We all are. We're all just hanging on at the eye of the storm. But the eye is closing, and if we don't do something fast, reality will never have happened. Today, just dying is a result. Now, come on!" I heard Dad and my footsteps rush away, but Amy and Rory stayed.

"She won't die," Amy said. "Time can be rewritten. He'll find a way. I know he will." I remained still as I felt one of them step closer to me and laid a coat gently across my body.

"Move it! Come on!" I heard Dad shout, then Amy and Rory sprinted up the steps. I opened my eyes and pulled the coat off my face. _OK, just a bit further, Jen, come on. You can do it. _I pulled all the energy I had together and sat up, holding my wrist up to my face. I breathed heavily and entered the coordinates, and in a second I was stood next to the Pandorica. I leant on the side for a moment, trying to regain some energy. Luckily, the box was still open from when Amy climbed out, so I stepped up to the chair and slumped down on to it, immediately connecting the vortex manipulator.

I was resting in the chair for a minute before flying when I heard them coming.

"Jen!" Dad shouted as he reached me.

"Why did you tell us she was dead?" Rory asked from behind him.

"We were a diversion. As long as the Dalek was chasing us, she could work down here." Amy reasoned correctly.

"Jen, can you hear me?" River said loudly, stepping right in front of me. "What were you doing?"

"Exactly what I said." Dad muttered. The room suddenly filled with a brighter shade of orange.

"What's happening?" Rory asked.

"Reality's collapsing. It's speeding up. Look at this room." Dad explained with bitterness.

"Where'd everything go?" Amy questioned.

"History's being erased," River replied. "Time's running out. Doctor, what was she doing? Tell us. Jenny?"

"Big Bang Two." I breathed.

"The Big Bang," Rory mumbled. "That's the beginning of the universe, right?"

"What, and Big Bang Two is the bang that brings us back? Is that what you mean?" Amy asked.

"Oh." River sighed.

"What?"

"The TARDIS is still burning. It's exploding at every point in history. If you threw the Pandorica into the explosion, right into the heart of the fire."

"Then what?"

"Then let there be light," Dad injected, his voice low and expressionless. "The light from the Pandorica would explode everywhere at once, just like I said."

"That would work? That would bring everything back?" Amy asked.

"A restoration field powered by an exploding TARDIS, happening at every moment in history. Oh, that's brilliant. It might even work. She's wired the vortex manipulator to the rest of the box." River said. I smiled.

"Why?" Amy demanded.

"So she can take it with her," River explained. "She's going to fly the Pandorica into the heart of the explosion."

"No she isn't." Dad barked.

"Dad…" I breathed.

"No, Jen!" He immediately snapped. "I said no!"

"Dad." I repeated.

"You are not doing it. I will not allow it."

"Listen to me," I said quietly, trying to sit up straighter and clearing my throat. "Whoever does this, will be erased from time… me or you. Either way, I'm not going to exist. If you go, I'll never have been born. If I go, the universe gets to keep its Doctor." I swallowed. Rassilon, that Dalek shot hurt.

"Jenny." He sighed.

"It's the best way, Dad." I closed my eyes and breathed heavily for a couple of seconds, and when I opened them again, Dad was a step closer.

"Jen, you know how much guilt I carry with me," he murmured. "Nine hundred years of time and space. The people I've lost, the lives I've ruined. I can't add you to that list."

"The people you've loved. The lives you've saved. Dad, those things far outweigh the bad ones," I whispered, my voice becoming weaker and weaker. "Your companions, your friends, will have never met you if you do this. Planets and species would be in devastation." He paused.

"There are no words for how proud I am of you now, Jen," he replied quietly. "But please. I can't live with any more guilt."

"Then, we'll both go." I breathed.

"There's only one seat in the Pandorica," River called from a few paces behind Dad, a sad expression on her face. "Room for one passenger."

"I can't let you." I sighed.

"Jenny, miracles can happen. There's a chance, a small chance that you will survive," Dad said, then let his voice drop to barely a whisper. "I'm your father. Let me protect you." I closed my eyes again, trying to regulate my breathing. My energy had never dropped so low before. I honestly couldn't argue at even a reasonable level, and Dad wasn't about to give in. What he said struck a chord with me, too. If I flew the Pandorica and got erased, I would be leaving him the last Time Lord in existence again. I couldn't do that to him, and I couldn't cause him any more guilt. So, reluctantly I nodded, my eyes still closed. I felt Dad brush my hair lightly and kiss my forehead, then he gently pulled me to my feet and carried me out of the box. I opened my eyes as he sat me down on the cool floor, leant against a wall. His face was sad and haunted.

"Don't forget me." I whispered.

"Never," he murmured, shaking his head. "My Jenny."

I listened to Dad climbing into what I still considered my place in the Pandorica. He had settled in and was talking to River, and I could feel Amy and Rory stood next to me.

"Are you okay?" I heard Rory ask.

"Are you?" Amy mumbled back.

"No." He replied.

"Well, shut up then." She snapped. I heard footsteps coming quietly over to us.

"Amy, he wants to talk to you." River said.

"So, what happens here? Big Bang Two? What happens to us?" Amy asked.

"We all wake up where we ought to be," River replied. "None of this ever happens and we don't remember it."

"River, tell me they come back, too." Amy whispered.

"The Doctor will be the heart of the explosion."

"So?"

"So all the cracks in time will close, but he'll be on the wrong side, trapped in the never-space, the void between the worlds," I answered quietly, my voice cracking. "All memory of him will be purged from the universe. Neither of us would have been born." There was a pause.

"Now, please. He wants to talk to you before he goes." River said.

"Not to you?" Amy asked.

"He doesn't really know me yet," River said, and I could hear both the pain in her voice and the smile she forced. "Now he never will." There were more footsteps as Amy walked away. I opened my eyes a little to see River coming closer to me, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Jenny," she said. "I'm sorry."

"It's OK," I breathed, waving my hand weakly. "River."

"You were always brave and brilliant." She smiled. We remained in silence for the next minute as Dad and Amy spoke. After that, I felt a rumble in the ground, and I watched Amy step away from the Pandorica's light.

"Back! Get back!" River shouted. I breathed heavily as the box hovered a little. It twisted, and quickly shot into the sky, breaking the glass in the roof, and reminding me of the last time I thought I lost my Dad.

"It's from the Doctor." River called, looking down at her device.

"What does it say?" Amy asked.

"Geronimo."

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: Firstly, thank you to the guest reviewer last chapter.. I don't think I kept you waiting too long for an update! ;) Bit of a plot twist from what we're used to in this episode but hopefully it seems plausible :) Now, bad news.. well, not bad news for me... Updates are going to be a lot slower from now on because I'm moving out next weekend for uni. My course is quite intense so I'm gonna have a lot of work to do, so this story will have to be put slightly to the side for a bit (I'm not stopping it completely, just will be longer gaps between chapters) I'm going to try for 1-2weeks between each update, but you know me, the chapters will be long :) And you never know, they might be slightly quicker if I get lots of lovely reviews ;) Read & Review! xx**


	22. The New World

I was walking through a hospital corridor. It looked human, 21st century. Not NHS, but the bits of conversation I caught as I followed the officials in front of me were in English. How did I get there? I was still wearing my leather jacket and Converse, and as I looked down, I noticed that my vortex manipulator was even on my wrist. I thought Dad had it? I thought we were going to be wiped from existence? What the hell happened? And why was I there, of all places? I heard a woman say something as we rounded a corner. She was wearing a white coat and looked like one of the doctors. Who were these people? Why was I following them?

"FBI." I shivered violently as another man joined the group: tall and handsome. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second as he looked at me. Jack.

At least it was someone I knew and trusted, but I still didn't know exactly where or when I was, or where we were going. So, I instinctively moved over to walk by Jack to feel safer.

_"What are you doing here?" _He asked in my head.

_"I have no idea." _I replied, just as we turned into a large metallic room. In the centre, there was a couple of tables covered in blood-splattered cloth, and four men wearing overalls and surgical masks, one adjusting a camera.

"Session begins," one of the men said. "Supervised by attending surgeon Professor Victor Louis Santini and witnesses to be listed in the hospital register." I grimaced at the burning smell as we stopped in front of the tables.

_"What is going on, Jack?"_

_"That's what we're here to find out."_

"The purpose of this enquiry is to determine… Well, as you'll see, following the explosion at the CIA archive, one of the victims has been-" the man continued, but paused as a wheezing sound came from underneath the cloth. "Yes, I think we can… I'm sorry. They brought me in as an expert, but I don't know what the hell this is." I watched as two other men rolled back the cloth, revealing a gruesome sight. Sprawled across the table, was a severely burnt man, a corpse, all of his body broken and destroyed. Parts were missing. All his clothes were either disintegrated or stuck to the remaining red flesh. It was the most disgusting and sickening thing I had ever laid my eyes upon.

"We think this man was right at the centre of the blast, and yet, he's still alive." The man narrated.

_"What?" _I exclaimed in Jack's head. The cloth was finally removed completely, and even his head was reduced to blackened skull. I stepped closer to Jack and gripped his hand tightly in shock.

"Clearly, the skin is burnt," the man said. "He's not indestructible, just undying."

_"This is…" _I began.

_"I know, Jen." _Jack said, squeezing my hand.

"Ever-living. We're going to need a new vocabulary." The man sighed.

_"Does that new vocabulary count for you, too?" _I asked.

_"I guess it should." _Jack replied, and I heard him smirk out loud. A few of the people glanced around at him with frowns.

"But we're getting the same results from all over the world." the man said after the awkward pause, and I flinched as I noticed that the burnt man's eyes were open, looking at all of us.

_"He's conscious." _I said.

_"I know." _Jack replied.

_"After you were blown up, when your body was rebuilding," _I continued. _"Were you awake?"_

_"No," _he answered after a couple of seconds. _"Not until all my body parts were reformed."_

"Is that actual consciousness?" The doctor from before asked. "It seems like he's still aware." I watched his fingers flex slowly on the metal.

_"Jack, would he still be alive if his body was in pieces?" _I asked. _"If he's like you, then he should lose consciousness if something was missing."_

_"Worth a shot."_

_"I'll ask."_

"Sorry," I said aloud, making everyone turn to look at me. "Jenny Chesterton, and-"

_"Owen Harper."_

"-Owen Harper, FBI," I smiled as Jack pulled a fake badge from his coat. "I was just wondering, what if you detached his head?" The doctor span around with an outraged expression.

"Miss Chesterton means," Jack interrupted the pause. "Would he stay alive, without his head?"

"I suggest we find out." The overall-clad man nodded, leaning down to the tools next to him.

"Excuse me, you can't do that!" The doctor exclaimed. "I mean, you literally can't. This man is not dead. He's our patient." I admired her morals. She must have made a brilliant doctor, but in honesty, I could tell that the man on the table was not going to get better.

"Your comments have been noted, Doctor Juarez," The man in overalls said, carrying on with our suggestion. "Now, shall we begin?" We all stayed silent as he picked up a pair of pliers and placed the mask over his mouth. I watched as he tugged on one of the strings of bone which once made up the man's neck, and winced as I heard it crack. He continued for a minute, each step of detachment creating horrible crunching sounds. I breathed deeply as he finished and set the pliers down, the head tipping to the side with nothing left to support it. His eyes were closed. Maybe he was like Jack, an immortal man, found by the wrong people who didn't know what he was? In which case, his body would grow back and he would be fine, just like the one holding my hand. Perhaps, I mean it was a long shot, but there might have been a possibility that it _was _Jack. A future Jack. I'd learnt in the last few hours that seeing your future self on the brink of death was possible, so it wasn't a completely nonsensical idea. I let myself smile slightly, the seconds that were passing starting to prove that just maybe I was right. But, at that moment, the pair of eyes opened again and looked at us. I recoiled a little and pushed myself closer to Jack's side.

"Oh my god." Doctor Juarez breathed.

"Don't tell me this is a virus or evolution or whatever," the man who performed the 'surgery' said, walking around to us. "This is deliberate intervention. I mean, all of us have been changed by design."

_"All of us?"_

"But how?" Doctor Juarez asked. "Who could do this?"

"Well, who's got the technology?" The man retorted. "Simple answer: no one on this Earth."

_"Come on." _Jack said in my head, and pulled me out of the room by my hand.

"So, where are you staying?" Jack asked aloud as we left the hospital.

"I don't know," I replied, frowning as I remembered the events of the Pandorica. "I don't know how I got here, Jack."

"OK," he shrugged, as if what I said was normal. "Come with me." I followed him out of the hospital grounds and into the street, looking around at the signs to work out where I was.

"Are we in America?" I asked him a few minutes of walking later.

"Yes," Jack nodded, flashing me a grin. "Welcome to Washington D.C., 2011." The rest of the journey was relatively silent. I followed Jack through the streets for a few hours, and just when it had gotten dark, he turned into a back alley. He looked around us cautiously, then nodded for me to go ahead. I climbed up the ladder he indicated into an old, dank building. Inside were several empty rooms, except for one, which had a few boxes, some computers and misshapen saucepans in the middle.

"Love what you've done with the place." I teased as I heard Jack hop inside behind me.

"Thank you!" He chuckled. "I was going for a poor, derelict sorta theme."

"Well, you certainly got that spot on." I smiled.

"Make yourself at home," he said, pointing at one of the boxes and going to sit down on the other himself. "So. What do you think happened?"

"The man from the explosion?" I replied, plonking myself down. "I don't know. I thought maybe he was like you, but-"

"No, we'll get to that later, I mean how did you get here?"

"Oh," I sighed. "Well, kind of… no idea. I'm not supposed to exist, Jack."

"What?" He exclaimed.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Something happened, I won't go into details, but the universe had to be rebooted with Dad and me never being born," I paused. "You know Dad, don't you?"

"The Doctor? Of course I do, Jen." Jack grinned, opening a tin of beans and pouring them into a saucepan.

"Right, OK. So that means somehow it was fixed," I thought aloud. "How?"

"Does it matter?" Jack questioned. "You and the Doctor both exist."

"I'm just curious, that's all," I smiled. "But the universe righted itself by dropping us back where we should be," I glanced around the room. "Apparently I'm supposed to be here."

"Here with me," he chuckled. "Do you think the universe is trying to tell you something, Jen?"

"Shut up, Harkness." I giggled, and watched him light a flame underneath the saucepan.

"So, how is the old Time Lord?" He asked a few seconds later, taking off his coat.

"He's fine," I replied. "Got some new friends. Amy and Rory, they're brilliant," Jack sat back down, smiling at me with genuine interest. "Oh, and he's got a new face."

"He regenerated?"

"Yep," I nodded. "Remember that night on Zog, in that bar. We came to see you, Dad and me."

"You said it was his reward," Jack replied. "And I asked…"

"Yeah. And I didn't reply," I said. "Well, he did."

"Wow," he sighed. "What does he look like now?"

"Let's just say we wouldn't get away with telling people we're father and daughter," I grinned. "And he wears a bow tie."

"Really?"

"Really," I giggled. "Apparently they're cool," I paused. "Actually, maybe he can help with this thing. Find out why that man can't die." I stood up and pulled Rory's phone out of my pocket, punching in the number. It rang for half a minute, and I watched Jack switch on a laptop whilst stirring the beans.

"_Hello?_"

"Dad!"

"_Jenny!_"

"Oh, you're OK!" I sighed happily. "You're OK. We're OK."

"_Was it something important, Jen? Because I'm a bit busy at this precise moment._"

"I just wanted to make sure you were OK," I smiled. "I'm on Earth."

"_Oh, good. I like Earth, Earth's my favourite. Yes, yes, I'll do a duet with you in a second, Frank!_"

"Where are you?"

"_1952. Hollywood." _I groaned. "_What?_"

"Nothing. I just get this feeling that you and Hollywood wouldn't end well."

"_Yes, of course, Marilyn. Sorry, Jen. What did you say?_"

"Doesn't matter," I giggled. "Listen, I'm with-"

"_Sorry, Jen. I have to go. I think I just accidently got engaged to Marilyn Monroe._"

"Only you, Dad."

"_Bye, Jen!_" The line went dead. I sighed and turned back to Jack, who was eating the beans from the saucepan.

"He's busy." I said, walking back to the boxes. Jack nodded.

"Want some?"

"No thanks," I replied, wrinkling my nose at the saucepan being waved by my face. "Beans are evil."

"Right," he sighed, and turned back to the laptop. "Anyway. It's not just that man, Jen. It's the whole world." I sat down and looked at the screen. A news article was displayed on it, the title reading 'The Death of Death'.

"Whoa," I breathed. "Every human?"

"Every human." Jack nodded as he leant back, folding his arms with a small groan.

"What could have done that? That surgeon was right, nothing on Earth," I muttered. "Not in this century, anyway. Who would do it, though? Who would want to keep the human race alive?" I paused. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jack replied. "It's just, my side."

"Show me." I ordered. I watched him slowly undo his shirt and lift the white vest underneath. I breathed in sharply as he revealed a purple bruise, stretching from his hips up to his armpit.

"That looks painful." I said.

"Yeah," he chuckled. "And it hasn't healed."

"What?"

"I'm not healing."

"Does that mean-"

"I don't know." I blinked.

"We need Torchwood."

The next evening we were on a plane flying to London. We argued over our vortex manipulators beforehand; I said we should use them because it would be quicker, but Jack told me that we would draw attention to ourselves. With Miracle Day happening, every alien-fighting establishment would have been watching. I had to admit he was right. So, there we were, sat in the uncomfortable seats waiting for the ten hour journey to begin.

"_Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to your flight to London Heathrow…_" The pilot said through the speakers, just as a dark-skinned man threw himself into the seat next to me.

"All right, now concentrate," he barked down his phone. "The life of Gwen Cooper… what do we know?" I looked at Jack worriedly.

"All right now, hold on, hold on. Go through her police records, find out everyone she worked with, everyone she trained with."

_"Jack."_

_"I know."_

"I'm sorry, sir, I have to ask you to turn your phone off now." An air hostess interrupted the man.

"CIA," he snapped, holding up an ID card. "And I'm sick. Gwen Cooper, find out everything." I shrunk back into my seat as Jack leaned across me, snatching the phone right out of the man's hand.

"She said to turn off your phone." He smiled after he hung up.

"Who the hell are you?" The man barked, grabbing the phone back.

"Jack and Jenny, nice to meet you, too." I grinned sarcastically, and the rest of the journey was spent in silence, Jack and me only communicating in our heads.

When we landed at Heathrow, Jack immediately got us a taxi to Wales. We were taken to an isolated beach where a jeep was waiting for us.

"So this is where Gwen lives now." I said as Jack switched on the engine.

"Yes, in that house, up there on the hill," he replied, pointing it out. As we drove across the sand, I saw a helicopter descend next to the white cottage and hover there. I leaned forward and squinted, just as a bullet from it hit one of Gwen's windows.

"Jack!" I shouted. "Fast!" I felt the jeep speed up ferociously towards the house as I watched the helicopter move away slightly.

"Jen! Gun in the back!" Jack yelled as we got closer. I reached behind the seats for the gun, lifting it up as I felt Jack slam the brakes on. I stood on my seat and held the gun on my shoulder a second after the jeep came to a stop, and shot at the helicopter, which was zooming in circles overhead.

"Can't leave you alone for a minute!" Jack exclaimed jokingly once it was gone. I turned around to see Gwen holding a baby, Rhys, and the man from the plane.

"Hello!" I grinned as Gwen smiled at us happily, and the man stepped forwards with a frown.

"It's you!" He said.

"Never annoy me again," Jack snapped back, just as I heard the whirring of the helicopter's blades returning. "Now get in." Gwen immediately leapt into the back of the jeep, her baby still in her arms, and Rhys followed soon after.

"You, in, quick!" I shouted at the man, who was still stood reluctantly outside the house.

"Duck!" I screamed a minute later. Jack was driving the jeep wildly across the beach, swerving from side to side to avoid the shots being fired at us from the helicopter.

"Jack, for god's sake, there's a kid here!" Rhys yelled from behind me, sat with Gwen and the baby.

"I got a present for you in the back!" Jack shouted..

"I don't think now is the time for jokes, Captain!" I replied, gripping the front of the jeep.

"Give me her, Gwen. The baby!"

"You, CIA! Do something useful!" Jack yelled at the man on my other side, who was clinging to everything in the car that he could. Not as macho as he made out.

"Wales is insane!" He exclaimed as he twisted around, looking up at the airborne threat.

"Your whole planet's insane!" I snapped, and leaned over the back of the seat towards Gwen, Rhys and the baby. "Get down!"

"OK! I'm OK!" Somebody screamed as Jack roughly slammed on the brakes.

"Who the hell are you people?" The man asked incredulously, just as Gwen stood up with a blaster in her hand.

"Torchwood." She stated firmly, and shot at the helicopter. The seconds seemed to slow as it burst into flame and tumbled towards us, its blades still spinning dangerously close. I grabbed Jack's shoulder and pulled him down as the helicopter fell literally an inch from our heads, landing with a crash a few metres away. I hopped out of the jeep with Jack immediately, walking over and stopping in front of the burning wreck next to Gwen. None of us spoke. Gwen turned her head in our direction and smiled, letting a quiet laugh out, and Jack and me returned our grins.

"Right. That's sorted. Rhys, take Anwen to my mother's and keep her safe and sound. Jack, if you've got access to any weapons, what else have we got? Je- Annie? I've still got the old I-5's, but everything else is gone." Gwen said quickly. We had made our way from Gwen and Rhys's house to Cardiff, and were sat on the steps by the tower. It had grown dark in that time, and only the street lights illuminated our faces.

"Vortex manipulator, but that's about it," I replied to her, grinning slightly at her slip up with my name. We'd quietly decided to use my pseudonym to stick with the known Torchwood member, Annie Smith, in order to not arouse suspicion. "You haven't lost your touch, Gwen."

"I knew it, though. Didn't I say? The first sign of trouble, you go running off with Captain Jack Bollocks." Rhys muttered, sat along the other side with the baby.

"What choice have I got?" Gwen said. "They rebuilt the tower, now we're rebuilding Torchwood. Isn't that right, Jack?" She paused. "Are you even listening to me?"

"I cut my arm." He said distractedly, fingering a red patch on his skin.

"OK," Gwen exclaimed. "Can't help but think there's more important things to be worrying about here."

"No, I've cut my arm. Look at it. It's not healing." He repeated, holding it up to show us.

"Again?" I asked.

"Do you mean?" Gwen mumbled.

"I'm staying hurt." He said incredulously.

"Oh my god."

"I know."

"Seriously though."

"It's only a cut." Rhys interrupted.

"But it's Jack. Don't you see, the whole world becomes immortal-" Gwen explained.

"And I'm mortal," Jack finished. I didn't think of it like that before. "I don't mend. I'm normal again. I'm plain old human."

"Then Miracle Day's something to do with you, Jack?" I wondered aloud.

"What?" Rex, the American man from the CIA, barked.

"Doesn't concern you." Jack snapped instantly.

"You talk some crazy shit, you know that?" Rex moaned.

"You haven't met my Dad." I commented.

"You should get that seen to." Gwen said to him, noticing the blood on his shirt.

"Yeah, any minute now…" He murmured to himself, and I frowned. "Here comes my ride." He said a couple of seconds later as sirens sounded loudly, and several police cars appeared. Jack and me stood and started to run, pulling Gwen and Rhys with us, but we were stopped by more cars and police behind us.

"We're surrounded." I mumbled.

"Andy, you can't do this." Gwen said to one of the policemen, who was stood next to Rex.

"Orders from above. I'm sorry," the man said sincerely, looking at Rex. "He's in charge."

"Since when?" Jack asked.

"He can't arrest us, he's American." Rhys cried.

"Hate to bust up this sweet little tea party, but this isn't an arrest. This is a rendition," Rex began, stumbling down the steps. "And on behalf of the CIA, under the 456 amendments, the US code 3184, I'm extraditing this so-called Torchwood team to the United States of America. Now, get me out of here. Take me home."

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: I post this chapter from my new flat :) Now, I'm going to try for updates at weekends.. probably Sundays, but some will be late. Apologies for that... I will try my best! Promise :) Read & Review xx**


	23. Rendition

After being held and driven around for several hours, something that I took the liberty of complaining about loudly in the back of the car, we were taken to Heathrow airport. Specifically, the runway. As soon as we stepped out of the car in handcuffs and saw the plane, I moaned again.

"Oh, not another plane journey!" I sighed. "Seriously, they take far too long. You lot need to hurry up and invent faster transport. When does that happen, Jack? It better be soon."

"They can't do this! I'm a British citizen, on British soil." Gwen exclaimed angrily as Rex frowned at me.

"Yeah? You've been too busy watching aliens-" Rhys replied, sounding fed up of the whole thing.

"Oi!" I interrupted, but stopped myself from informing Rex and the police that I was one of those aliens.

"-the fact is, the Americans have been getting away with this for years." Rhys finished.

"Hey hey hey hey, what's that supposed to be, criticism?" Rex said smugly. "What'll you do, write to your MP?" He turned to Jack and me. "And you two, World War Two and GI Jane," I smiled wistfully as I remembered the last time someone called me that. The still human part of Donna meant that she would have been affected by the Miracle. "I'll take these." Rex began removing our Vortex Manipulators. I struggled a bit, but I couldn't do a lot with handcuffed wrists.

"They're nothing, they're harmless." Jack said to Rex, sounding almost bored.

"Then you won't mind me having them." He replied.

"I do," I smiled as Rex snatched mine away. "That thing's been rather handy."

"Your girl's got a big mouth, World War Two." He chuckled arrogantly as he walked away from us. We stood for a few seconds in silence, awkwardness filling the air.

"I'm not your girl." I muttered with a small grin up at Jack that I couldn't hold in. He smiled back with a sparkle in his eye, but closed his mind so I couldn't hear what he was thinking.

"How's that cut on your arm?" Gwen asked quietly as we shuffled around together into a tight circle.

"I'll survive," Jack replied. "I'm mortal, not dying. Well, technically I guess I am dying but slowly."

"Not if I can help it." I murmured. There was no way that I was letting any more of my closest friends lose their lives, while I carried on breathing.

"This thing that's happening to the world, this miracle," Gwen said. "It must have something to do with you."

"That's what I said," I nodded. "Everything's been reversed."

"Great, so it's my fault." Jack sighed sarcastically.

"No, not necessarily," I replied, rolling my eyes. "But you're the only link into this thing at the moment."

"Can't be a coincidence, Jack." Gwen added.

"Course it's not a coincidence," Rhys injected. "But like Jenny said, doesn't mean to say it's his fault."

"Rhys, are you defending me?" Jack questioned, surprised.

"Well, it's like we all got switched, isn't it? Nothing to do with Jack if the wires got crossed." Rhys explained. "Exactly. Everything mortal becomes immortal, so everything immortal becomes mortal." I smiled. "Well done, Rhys. Great minds think alike, as a wise person once said. Who was that? I can't remember, but Dad would know."

"Come on, let's go. Get 'em," Rex interrupted with a haughty click of his fingers, just as Jack chuckled at me. "Take the husband back to Wales." Several police suddenly appeared around us and grabbed Rhys, pulling him in the opposite direction to us. I heard Gwen's cries to her husband and Andy, and Jack's and my shouts to let us all go. I also kicked and punched a couple of the police by me, and did get free for a second, but was repaid with tighter grips around my arms. I looked up as Jack, Gwen and me were dragged nearer the plane. Rhys was being held back by two policemen, and baby Anwen was in the arms of a policewoman next to him.

"Where are you taking him?" Gwen screamed as Rex strode between the cars.

"I'm arresting Torchwood," he replied casually. "Is he Torchwood? No, he's a spouse," he turned to Rhys. "Now you, go. Get out of here. Go do spousal stuff."

"Give me my daughter!" Gwen shrieked desperately.

"Give the baby to her!" I added. "You can't separate a child from their parents!"

"You know what, the spouse can take the baby." Rex smiled.

"No, you bring her back right now!" Gwen argued. "Rex, please, I'm begging you!"

"The more you fight, the more he enjoys it!" Jack snapped as Gwen and Rhys continued yelling.

"On the plane." Rex ordered as Jack and me reached the stairs up to it.

"Rex, please!" I heard Gwen shouting. "Listen! Somebody's been trying to kill us!" I watched as Jack was dragged backwards to the doors, my own feet slipping around as the two police either side of me pulled me faster than I cared to walk. Gwen and Rhys were still screaming behind me.

_"Jen, stay quiet. Don't struggle, don't kick and fight." _Jack said in my head.

_"I'm not, Jack!" _I replied.

_"You were, and you usually do." _I heard Gwen swearing at Rex as we were yanked through the doors on to the plane and shoved side-by-side into the seats.

"This I going to be a long journey." I breathed.

We had all calmed down a little later, once Gwen was put into the seat on the other side of Jack and Rex climbed aboard with a self-satisfied smirk. The plane was fairly silent, although if there was no psychic link between Jack and me, there would have been a lot more friendly chat. I watched the air steward stroll down the aisle next to me and stop in front of Rex.

_"What do you think?" _Jack asked.

_"Definitely gay." _I replied.

_"You're sure?" _

_"Oh, yes."_

_"Maybe I can turn on the Harkness charm and check out this theory."_

_"I'm sure you can, Captain."_

"Sorry, all I could find was an aspirin," The air steward said to Rex, holding out a couple of pills. "It was in the co-pilot's pocket. I gave it a quick spritz to take the lint off."

_"No need for that charm, Jack. I think he's just proved me right."_

"It's Danny, right?" Rex asked him lazily after a second.

"Yeah." Danny replied happily, pointing at his name badge.

"Listen, I'm not gay, but I'll let you feel me up if you go get me a vodka." Rex said.

_"Ah! Me and Rex seem to be on the same wavelength."_

_"Is that a good thing?"_

_"Ummm… not sure. Let me get back to you on that."_

"Oh," Danny spluttered. "I'm not gay either."

_"Yeah, he's gay. But that just means more for me, less for you." _Jack relented with a cheeky grin as Rex paused to look at the air steward disbelievingly.

"Alright then, I'll let you feel her up if it'll get me a vodka." He said, pointing at his colleague in the seat behind him.

"We're supposed to be on duty." She sighed.

"It's medicinal," Rex snapped. "Besides, what do you think's gonna happen? They're gonna kick out a window and jump thirty thousand feet? Trust me, just sit back and relax. The next six hours are gonna be filled with boredom, followed by monotony." And with that, he stood up and strode across to the toilet.

_"Is Gwen OK?" _I asked, looking across Jack to her unusually tense and quiet form. He glanced at her, then around the plane.

"They spent a lot of money on us," he began with a smile in his voice. "Cleared out the plane for the prisoners. All on the taxpayers' dollar. Not bad, eh?"

"Every time you turn up, it always goes wrong." Gwen interrupted with little expression. The air was suddenly very awkward.

"Be fair," I mumbled apprehensively. "How would Jack have known Rex was going to pull that stunt?"

"I was talking to both of you." She snapped, her eyes still fixed on a random spot in front of her. I raised my eyebrows at Jack.

_"It's not our fault, is it?" _I asked.

_"It's not yours," _Jack replied. _"The universe dropped you back here to help."_

"Gwen-" He started out loud.

"You know the way it works, Jack," she barked, spinning her head to us sharply. "Every time anyone ever gets close to you, nobody has a normal life again. And you, Jenny, I know about the Doctor. I did research while you two were away. You and your Dad take people and show them the universe, then they get dropped back on Earth, or worse," I swallowed and stared down at my hands as our friends filled my mind: Rose, trapped in a parallel world; Martha, having to go through that year that never happened; Donna, losing her precious memories; Charlie… and Captain Jack, immortal until the end of reality. "And do you know what really, and I mean it, really pisses me off?" She continued. "What took you both so long?" I felt a grin spreading over my features, and heard the chuckle in Jack's head. "I have to nearly explode before you turn up?"

"Did you miss me?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Gwen replied instantly. There was another pause as we all turned back to face the front, Jack and me still giggling slightly.

"I started to think I'd be like some sort of fairy tale," she restarted, calmer that time. "I'd be an old woman, and you'd just turn up out of the blue. Visit my granddaughter. I'd be ancient and you'd be exactly the same," she paused. "Where did you go, Jack?" Then it was his turn to hesitate.

"Where did you go?" I repeated. "Apart from Zog?"

"A long way away." He replied.

"And did it help?" Gwen whispered. Jack swallowed and turned away from both our gazes, just as Rex came back from the bathroom.

"Hey, lovebirds," he began, resting on the cabinet in front of us. "Let me ask you a question."

"Let me ask you one first, Rex," I interrupted, leaning forwards. "Who do you mean by lovebirds, exactly?"

"Hey hey hey, you're the prisoners. I ask the questions," he snapped, and I noticed our vortex manipulators in his hand as I sighed and inclined back. "What the hell are these things, huh? All they do is go bleep."

"So give them back to us." Jack said.

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd like that." Rex replied.

"I would," I smiled. "Anyway, even if we did tell you what they are, you wouldn't believe us."

"Why, what do they do, measure how mortal you are?"

"Still don't believe me?" Jack chuckled.

"Please." Rex spluttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

"The whole world can't die, but I'm the one who's being ridiculous." Jack said sarcastically, switching his eyes between Gwen and me.

"You're always ridiculous." I teased, poking my tongue at him.

"Tell me then, fly boy," Gwen started, frowning at Rex. "What happens to us when we get to America?"

"Oh, you'll be interrogated." Gwen paused.

"You stupid, tiny, bloody little man," she said, and I let out a loud laugh. "For starters, we don't know anything. And even if we did, why didn't you just ask?"

"Oh, hey, listen," Rex chuckled. "I'm sorry, maybe I didn't explain it earlier. I don't think you actually know _anything_. I mean, come on! Look at you three, you're not that bright."

_"If only he knew…"_

_"Don't say anything, Jen. Your identity needs to be kept secret until we're with people we trust."_

"What you are is connected," Rex continued, oblivious to the conversation going on between Jack and me. "And someone has made a link between that old institution of yours and the miracle. And now they want to kill you for it. So, we work out what the connection is, and then we start to solve it."

"So is anyone doing investigations on morphic fields?" Jack asked immediately.

"Ah! Morphic fields, good thinking, Jack," I grinned. "That's a possibility. Rex?" He leant back with a smirk.

"On the what fields?"

"The Sheldrake Theory. Never heard of it?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"The passing of connective information through the process of morphic resonance." Jack explained.

"I'm sure it is." Rex said with a laugh.

"The theory states that a bunch of monkeys on an island learn how to use a rock as a knife." Jack began.

"Then, another load of monkeys on another island ten thousand miles away also learn how to use a rock as a knife." I added.

"Because they're connected through a morphic field." Jack finished.

"Come on, now. That's just science fiction." Rex said.

"Except it's not a theory. It's a fact." Jack replied.

"It is. I've seen it." I nodded.

"And the amazing thing about the miracle is not that no one's dying, it's not that the human race has become immortal. It's that it happened to everyone at the same time. Don't you see? It was instantaneous!" Jack explained.

"And that's a morphic event on a scale that neither Jack nor me have ever seen before, so whatever's happening to this planet is huge." I said.

"It's massive." Jack added. We paused, letting all the information sink in for a second.

"By the way, your sodium's low." I smiled.

"My what?" Rex snapped.

"That bleeping," Jack replied. "It's found low sodium levels in your blood."

"You need salt." Gwen finished. Rex's eyes scanned over all three of us, and he chuckled as he got up and walked back to his seat.

"That's good." He murmured to himself.

_"He'll learn." _I said.

_"He sure will." _Jack agreed.

"Dr Juarez? It's your favourite patient here and you have something that I want." Rex began, talking down his phone as we had to sit in silence.

"Really? So does he call wanting drugs and sex?"

"Good point, but for now, I'll just settle for the drugs. Hey, let me ask you a question. Um, do I have low sodium levels?" Jack winked at me.

"And you didn't tell me?" I giggled.

"Danny! Bring me some pretzels! The salty kind. So listen, meet me at the airport in six hours, and if you bring the painkillers, I'll let you examine the last mortal man in the world."

"Oh, will you now?" I exclaimed.

_"Jen, don't." _

"But, Jack-"

_"Jenny, no."_

"No, Jack!"

_"You're talking out loud." _I paused, glancing at Rex. He looked entirely bemused.

"You're not _examining _him." I said, leaning back into my seat.

"She's got it bad for you, World War Two." Rex chuckled, and I rolled my eyes. That was really getting old.

"Hey," Jack said, leaning towards Danny, the air steward, a few minutes later. "Could we have something to drink?"

"I'm not allowed to talk to you." Danny replied.

"Give it to us silently." Jack breathed, the smirk clear in his voice.

"I'm not allowed to talk to you." Danny repeated. The last time someone said that to me, I was locked in a cell with Dad and Donna on Messaline. Unfortunately, I didn't think the same tactics I used back then would have worked on Danny.

"They can have water," Rex's colleague said from a couple of rows behind us. "It's OK, I can supervise it."

"Water? I'm American, too!" Jack shouted as they walked back down the aisle. "Can't I contribute to our global hegemony with a nice frosty cola?" I watched the woman's back as they disappeared behind the wall.

"I don't trust her." I murmured. I felt Jack's eyes on me, but he didn't say anything aloud or silently. Suddenly, Danny reappeared in the aisle looking a little annoyed.

"Would you like a drink, sir?" He asked Rex.

"No, no," Rex shook his head. "Too many painkillers." I stared intently at the wall as Danny walked away again. There was definitely something going on.

_"Something's not right here." _I said.

_"Like what?" _Jack asked.

_"That woman. She's up to something."_

_"Come on, Jen."_

_"Jack, I'm serious."_

_"She's CIA. She can't do anything to the prisoners, we're needed."_

_"You think that would stop her?" _Jack didn't reply. He was distracted by the woman in question and Danny returning with the three cups, which they handed to us carefully.

"Thanks." Jack said as he took his cola.

"When do we land?" Gwen asked.

"I'm still not allowed to talk." Danny sang as I groaned loudly.

"So we were painting the cottage, and I was going to be planting roses out front." Gwen said distantly. I was eyeing my cup of water, sniffing it subtly to detect any poisons. I couldn't smell anything in mine, so I switched my gaze to Jack's cola.

"I thought salt air killed roses?" Jack replied to Gwen with interest.

"Rugosa roses, Jack," she replied. "They're called rugged roses, full of thorns. Salt air doesn't bother them. They put up a good front." Jack smiled and made an agreeing sound. My eyes widened as he lifted the cup to his lips.

_"Don't!" _I cried.

"_What?" _Jack asked, pausing with the cup next to his chin, not looking at me to not arouse suspicion.

_"Jack, I really, seriously don't trust that woman."_

_"Jenny, come on. Like I said before, she's CIA. They don't wanna kill us." _He quickly raised the cup and swallowed it all, making me gasp.

_"Don't blame me if something happens now." _I said moodily.

Around fifteen minutes later, and fifteen minutes worth of no conversation from Jack, he suddenly popped up in my head.

_"I don't feel so good."_

_"Well, I warned you."_

_"No, I really don't, Jen." _I looked up at him. In fairness, he did look absolutely awful: deathly white skin, dark circles under his eyes, and he was sweating profusely.

_"I'm not gonna lie, Jack, you don't look good, either."_

_"I think you were right."_

_"And the penny drops!"_

_"I'm gonna be sick." _I heard small retching noises coming from his throat.

_"Go to the bathroom," _I ordered. _"Do you want me to come with you?"_

_"Yes," _he spluttered. _"Help me figure out what this is." _I helped him stand up gently, gripping his arm in case he fell.

"Back in your seat." The woman called from behind us, just as Rex jumped up.

"I'm gonna throw up." Jack mumbled as Rex took his other arm.

"It's alright, I'll take him." He said.

"No, I'll do it." I argued.

"Sit back down," Rex snapped. "I'll take him." I sighed and slowly turned back to my seat, throwing myself into it angrily.

"What's wrong with him?" Gwen whispered to me.

"Something in his drink, I think." I replied, keeping my eyes on Jack and Rex, who had just stumbled into the toilet.

"Quiet!" The woman barked. "Prisoners are not permitted to talk to one another." I rolled my eyes at Gwen, but we did stop talking. I fixed my eyes on the aisle towards the toilet door, where Rex was stood.

_"Jack, are you OK?" _I heard him retch loudly. _"I'll take that as a no."_

_"Jen, this isn't any virus or infection."_

_"Someone's done this to you."_

_"Yes."_

_"That woman."_

_"Possibly." _I watched Jack fall out of the bathroom door into Rex, who guided him apprehensively back to his seat.

"You look awful!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Thanks." Jack breathed, his throat catching a little.

"He needs medication," she said, slipping into serious action mode. "Rex? He needs help, now."

"Alright, alright," Rex sighed. "Danny!"

"I'm sorry, we didn't have time for a handover," Danny said apologetically as he rushed down the aisle. "There's no medication."

"Don't talk to the pris-" the woman started.

"You!" I interrupted loudly, spinning in my seat to face her. "You went to _supervise _Danny pouring us drinks."

"What did you do to him?" Gwen added immediately. "Who needs supervising pouring a drink? What did you supervise exactly?"

"Take it easy." Rex warned.

"No, something's happened to Jack. Believe me, this is not just any old human virus," I argued. "And it's happened just after that woman and Danny got him a drink. What a coincidence!"

"So now you're accusing anyone?" The woman sighed.

"It's either you or the big gay steward, so my money's on you." Gwen snapped.

"I'm not gay!" Danny sang, really doing nothing to help his argument.

_"Jen, there's definitely some kind of poison inside me." _Jack said.

"Rex, just search her!" I cried desperately. "Come on! If she's innocent, what harm will it do?"

"Look, you know no one can die?" He replied.

"Oh yeah? What if you're wrong, Rex?" Gwen asked. "What if your big success is an alien, one Welsh woman and a dead body?" _Oh, she dropped me in it. Never mind. _

"An alien?" Rex questioned.

"Listen, just search her!" I exclaimed, trying to get the conversation back on track. "That's all we're saying, search her."

"Rex, please. Search her, please." Gwen finished.

"All right, if it'll shut you up," he sighed, turning to his colleague. "Let me see your bag." In one swift movement, Rex picked up her bag and she tried to snatch it back.

"Put that down." She said calmly.

"You stay right there." Rex ordered quietly, our suspicions finally becoming more tangible to him. There was silence as we watched Rex pull out the woman's possessions and toss them on to the seats.

_"It's OK, Jack," _I whispered. _"You're going to be OK." _Rex suddenly produced a small plastic bag full of blue and white pills and held it up.

"What did we say? Poison!" Gwen shouted angrily.

"Is that the first assumption you make when you find medicine in someone's handbag?" The woman questioned haughtily.

"OK, what is it then?" I asked. She paused. "Come on. You just said those pills are your own medication. What for?" She looked at me calmly, but still didn't reply.

"Lyn?" Rex prompted her.

"Well, if you're not going to say what they're for, you're going to have to prove it," Gwen said. "I'm sure one pill won't hurt you."

"That's a damn good idea," Rex nodded, picking one of the blue pills out of the bag. "Take it."

"Why would I take that, it's poison." She replied, rolling her eyes.

"You just said-" Rex began, raising his voice.

"I just said it was quite an assumption," Lyn said as if she had done nothing wrong. "Yes, I carry poison. I run a lot of agents, you never know when they might need it."

"So you gave this stuff to Jack?" I snapped, taking the bag from Rex to examine a pill.

"Another brash assumption." She smiled.

"OK, well if you didn't give him anything, then there's no harm in telling us what kind of poison is in this bag." Rex said. I sniffed one of the blue tablets carefully, trying to detect what was in it.

"Cyanide." I mumbled when the smell came to me.

"Yeah, get over here." Rex spat suddenly, pushing Lyn into a seat.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled.

"Sit down! Stay right there!" He shouted back. "Tell me what you gave him!"

"I didn't give him anything!"

"Oh, come on! We know you did!" I snapped at her. "But you can bring it back, Lyn. Tell us what this poison is, and you can help save him." She smiled sickeningly at me, so I turned back to the pills in my hands.

"Jenny, what is it?" Gwen asked me, standing up from her chair.

"I'm not sure yet," I replied worriedly. "Jack, look at me," he turned his face towards me. "Lips aren't blue."

"Not cyanosis." Jack spluttered.

"No, no. It's not," I nodded, and slid the pile of pills into the small table in front of Jack. "Maybe the consistency." I picked up a blue tablet and crushed it between my fingers.

"I had a boyfriend who took arsenic." Jack breathed heavily.

"Yeah? This does feel like it." I replied.

"Same consistency." He nodded.

"You had a boyfriend who took arsenic?" Rex questioned sharply.

"Yeah, Slovenian," Jack explained as I scanned the white powder. "Took arsenic for better skin."

"Hold up, I've read about that," Rex said. "That was back in the 1800's, though."

"Not really the time for this, is it, Rex?" I frowned, dropping the powder back on to the table.

"The point is, how do we fix this?" Gwen asked. "How do we cure arsenic poisoning?"

"I don't know." Jack said, leaning back into the seat with very heavy breaths. I gripped one of his hands while Gwen took the other.

"Jenny?" Gwen turned to me. "Tell me you know." I paused, looking at her, and racking my brain for the answer. Jack began to convulse with moans of pain as I desperately sought for a solution.

"OK, OK," I nodded quickly. "I think we can do it," I stood up instantly and began pacing up and down the aisle, voicing my thoughts aloud. "OK, EDTA. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. That's what he needs. Right, ingredients, chemicals… Argh, I don't know! 21st century planes aren't my best subject! How do you make EDTA with materials here? Anyone know?"

"I know someone who can help," Rex said, pulling out his phone. "Vera, how do you make EDTA?"

"Listen, I have someone here with a headache, nausea and convulsions. We think he was given arsenic. EDTA is the cure, right?"

"So how do we make it?"

"We are stuck on a plane over the Atlantic. What else can we do?"

"This is the mortal man, the one I was telling you about. Seriously, I think this man can die."

"Now you believe me!" Jack interrupted, still emitting pained noises that broke my hearts a little.

"You shut up! Vera, EDTA, what is it?"

"Yeah, but the CIA just poisoned him! Seriously, you're all I've got. I'm watching the man die."

"OK," Rex nodded, turning to us. "They're working it out."

"Right, Gwen, take the phone, call out the instructions." I ordered.

"Formaldehyde, and ethylenediamine?" She exclaimed once she'd taken the phone.

"You are not giving me formaldehyde!" Jack shouted at us.

"You can shut up!" I yelled back. "Gwen, where can we find this on a plane?"

"We can make formaldehyde by oxidising methanol?" She called out. "How the hell do we oxidise methanol at thirty thousand feet?"

"Methanol? OK, we can do that, that's easy. Laptops have methanol fuel cells," I replied, pacing in circles. "Danny, where are the laptops? Check for fuel cells." He paused confusedly.

"Quicker than that, Danny, for god's sake. Now!" Gwen ordered loudly, and the steward rushed around instantly.

"OK, now a catalyst. Gwen, a catalyst. Ask them what we could use for a catalyst." I said. She paused as the people on the other end of the phone told her.

"Silver, Jenny!" She replied.

"I'm on it!" Rex said immediately, and I heard him searching frantically behind the wall where our drinks were made.

"OK, what else, what else, what else, EDTA… ammonia!" I cried, jumping in front of Gwen. "Where can we get ammonia?"

"Cleaner!" She exclaimed, and turned to the female stewardess who was frowning at us. "You must have cleaner in the loos or the bathroom?" She nodded. "OK, good. Come on, faster faster faster!" The woman rushed past us as Rex returned empty-handed, still looking for the silver. He strode up to Lyn in her seat, who was observing the scene with despicable smugness.

"That looks like silver." Rex murmured, ripping the thin chain from her neck.

"OK, Jenny, next!" Gwen called with determination.

"Right, OK. I think that's it." I nodded.

_"Jen, are you sure?" _

_"It's going to be fine, Jack. I promise."_

"We need to put all this together and heat it up," I instructed. "Danny, where can we do that?"

"Behind here." He replied, pointing down the aisle.

Two minutes later, we were stood in front of the metal desk with the ingredients for Jack's cure heated up in a jug. I dropped the silver chain into the solution with an eleventh Doctor-like flourish, and paused.

"One thing missing. Dichloroethane. Gwen?" I said.

"It's in degreaser." She told me, and we turned to Greta, the air stewardess.

"Oh, that… We don't have that, stuff." She replied nervously.

"Do not say that, Greta. You must have some somewhere." Gwen said slowly.

"We don't use it. I don't go around degreasing." Greta exclaimed.

"Why not?" I shouted, making the girl jump. "You should have thought about this! 'What would we do if someone was arsenic poisoned?' Come on! Dear Rassilon, humans! You need to use your heads!"

"But, the automated system takes care of it!" Greta spluttered.

"The automated system! Jenny, the automated system!" Gwen cried sarcastically, leaning over the desk and flipping the jug lid up and down.

"Well, that's OK!" I said. "Greta, can we get to it?"

"The tubing distributes it throughout the plane."

"Tubing!" I yelled.

"Tubing?" Gwen asked.

"Orange tubing." Greta nodded.

"Where's the tubing?"

"In the floor."

"In the floor?"

"In the floor!" We rushed back into the seating area of the plane and dropped to our knees to rip the carpet up. I glanced at Jack briefly to update myself on his progression. It wasn't good. His eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly open, and he was still pale and sweating. He didn't look conscious.

_"Jack?" _No reply. _OK, Jen. We need to be quick._

"Oh, you're damaging the floor!" Greta cried when Gwen tore the carpet from the floor panels.

"Yeah, and we'll rip this plane apart with our bare hands if we have to!" Gwen yelled back.

"We are not losing that man!" I added.

"Now get over there and help!" Gwen ordered. We waited for Greta to reach the other side of the panel, then lifted it up to reveal a massive jumble of colours.

"It's wires! It's just bloody wires!" Gwen shrieked, waving her hands around frantically.

"Greta, where are the tubes?" I asked quickly. "They're obviously not here, where are they exactly?" She frowned at the floor uselessly. "OK, you don't know." I sighed.

"All right, rip the panels up. Rip 'em all up!" Rex shouted, removing his jacket and joining Greta on the other side. We wrenched the next lengths of carpet up, then the metal panels underneath.

"Brilliant, your prisoner is sick and you're destroying the plane." Lyn called from behind us. I chose to ignore her.

"Careful with those wires." Someone said.

"Looking a little bit worried there, Rex, like this might all be your fault," Gwen cried at the man opposite. "You put us on this plane."

"Gwen, now's not the time. We've got to save Jack, there's no way in all the universe I'm letting any more of my friends die." I snapped, searching through the colours. "There's no orange tube!"

"Which one of you two has a thing with him?" Rex asked.

"What?"

"World War Two."

"No way. My Dad would go crazy." I shook my head.

"I'm married with a baby!"

"Yeah, Dad, baby, whatever," Rex slurred. "You argue like people who are real close. All three of you."

"Well, did you have a thing with your poisoner friend over there?" Gwen retorted.

"Yeah, we did."

"Oh, you did?"

"But we got on each other's nerves."

"Really? Can't imagine!" I exclaimed sarcastically.

"And there is no orange tube here!" Gwen screamed.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute. It's a degreaser, right? So you use a degreaser where there's grease," Rex realised. "So where's grease?"

"Moving parts!" I shouted. "Gwen, moving parts?"

"Danny, Danny! Moving parts?"

"Where's the access conduit to the landing gear?" Rex asked. I watched Danny think about it for a second, then he pointed to the cupboard in front of the seats.

"Here."

"Move this."

"Move it up! Move it up!"

"Greta, give us a hand. Ready?"

"One, two, three." We shoved the cupboard away and moved the panel underneath, uncovering more wires.

"Don't damage it, you idiots." Rex snapped as we began searching through.

"Orange! Look, it's an orange tube!" Gwen yelled excitedly.

"I see it! I see it!"

"OK, give me a knife." I said to Danny, who fetched one instantly.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute. We've got to be careful because it's not labelled. If it's part of the oil system, we're screwed." Rex said.

"Don't care, saving Jack, no matter the cost." I replied, leaning towards the tube with the knife in my hand. I gripped the rubber and pulled it up, piercing it with the blade. A burst of clear liquid squirted out.

"Oh, get a cup, get a cup. Gather it, man. That's it," Gwen said with a sigh. "Oh, that's beautiful!" We collected a cup full of degreaser amongst relieved laughs. I looked up at Jack, who was still unconscious.

"Final ingredient: touch of cyanide." I said, back behind the wall.

"Are you sure that's right?" Greta asked as I opened one of the blue pills.

"'Course I am," I replied as I tipped a small amount of the powder into the jug. "Got to replace the arsenic with another toxic substance, that's how it works."

"It's not enough to kill him," Gwen added. An awful smell emitted from the jug as the cyanide hit the solution, and we all recoiled a little. "Hopefully."

"There. I knew diabetes would be useful one day." Danny said as he appeared with a syringe.

"Now, I'm going to need your tie, Danny," Gwen muttered, reaching for the blue material around his neck. "Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up."

"Gwen?" I whispered as I filled the syringe and passed it to her.

"Lovely." She said seriously.

"He'll need help with his coat." Gwen murmured.

"Yep." The two stewards immediately took the coat from around his shoulders as Jack's body tipped forwards into Gwen and me.

"Be careful with his coat." I added as Greta and Danny removed it slightly more roughly than I would have liked.

"That's it, that's it. As quick as you can." Gwen whispered.

"OK, take his sleeve up." I instructed, and Jack's eyes suddenly flickered open.

"Hello." I smiled.

"I… I heard cyanide." He managed to splutter.

"Yep, you did, Captain. But it's fine. Trust us." I nodded.

"It's going to be alright." Gwen added.

"No it won't, don't let them do this. They'll kill you." Lyn called from across the seats.

"Shut up." Rex barked.

"Oh." Gwen exclaimed quietly as I rolled Jack's shirt above his elbow.

"You're not filling me with confidence." He breathed.

"Come on, Jack. You know me," I smiled. "The Doctor's daughter, I'm not stupid." He nodded weakly and indicated the veins in his arm.

"Be careful. That's my good tie!" Danny whined as Gwen wrapped the material around Jack's upper arm.

"And you're definitely not gay!" She sang back in the same tone. I giggled.

"It was one time, OK?" Danny snapped. _Ah, there we go!_

"Alright, Jack, don't move." I said as Gwen finished tying and picked the syringe up.

"Here we go." She said. The needle sticking from the end of the plastic moved closer to Jack's veins. I held a breath. Then, suddenly, the syringe was knocked out of Gwen's hand across the aisle.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed, and I scurried after it.

"That was your last chance." I heard Gwen snap as I snatched the syringe.

"Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?" Lyn replied arrogantly. "If you're the best England's got to offer, then God help you." There was a pause.

_"Uh-oh, she's done it now." _I said to Jack, and I heard him chuckle weakly.

"I'm Welsh." Gwen said, and I saw the punch as I span around.

"And I for one am incredibly grateful for that, Mrs Williams!" I laughed as we turned back to Jack. The next minute was traumatic to say the least. Gwen slowly injected Jack with the EDTA. I felt the pain building in his head as the solution ran through his bloodstream. I watched his face twist and contort into excruciating expressions. The screams were even worse: out loud and in my head. I gripped his hand tightly.

"It's OK."

"Jack?"

"OK. Oh, I'm so sorry."

"We're sorry. I'm so sorry, Jack."

"Jack, I am so sorry, I think it's corrosive!"

"No, it's not. It shouldn't be!"

"It's working, though, yeah? It's working?" We held our breath as Jack fell silent, his face losing all emotion.

"Oh please god, say it's working!" Jack?"

_"Jack? Speak to us, Jack!"_

"What is it?" Eventually, a cough broke out from his throat and he reopened his eyes.

"Yes, yes." He breathed.

"It's working?" Gwen asked.

"Yes." He repeated, and I let go of my breath, throwing my arms around him.

"Nice work. Nice work." I heard Rex say as I stood up again. Suddenly, my wrists were pulled together and put into handcuffs, and I was shoved back into my seat.

"Hey!" Gwen cried as Rex did the same to her.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"You know, it's always better to return with four healthy prisoners. Sit down," Rex said. "Jesus."

A few hours later, we got off the plane in Washington, still wearing the handcuffs.

"This one, too. She's under arrest." Rex said to the officials waiting on the runway, pointing at Lyn.

"Mr Friedkin wants a full debriefing. He had section chiefs from Clandestine and Intelligence on standby," one of the men said. "We have a secure van outside waiting to take the prisoners to Langley. This way, thank you." We followed the men into the airport silently. With all the poisoning issues on the plane, I'd forgotten to think about what would happen once we reached the US again. As we walked through a white corridor, a phone rang.

"Yeah, who's this?" Rex said after picking it up.

"I haven't had a chance. Why?"

"Oh yeah? Wow, that's, um… That's wonderful. Yeah, it's great to be back." I looked at Jack.

_"What do you think?"_

_"Suspicious."_

_"Yep."_

"Yeah, well. That idea is extremely relevant."

"Yeah, that seems to be the ongoing situation."

"Yeah, yeah. I got you. That's confirmed."

"Alright. Copy that." He put the phone back in his pocket, and stopped us.

"Hey, you know, I just remembered there's one final piece of legislation needed to make this a full and proper rendition," he began, reaching for our handcuffs. "And according to recent amendments to US Code section 3184 and section 3185 in transferring prisoners from airside to landside," he removed my cuffs, and I rubbed my wrists. "The law clearly states that, uh, once they touch down on American soil, they have free and easy access to one very important thing."

"And what's that?" Gwen asked suspiciously.

"Bullshit." Rex replied, and we leapt into action immediately. I swung my arm around, knocking out the man closest to me, while Gwen and Jack took out two more.

"Are we off, then?" I smiled at them.

"Yep." Jack nodded.

"See ya!" Gwen called back to Rex as we ran up the stairs and into a large, busy hall.

"OK, what's the plan, Captain?" I asked once we'd walked through the crowds of people for a minute.

"Why do I have to come up with all the solutions?" He whined.

"It's in your name… _Captain_." I teased, poking my tongue out.

"It's in your name, Time _Lord_." He retorted with a grin.

"Even if we can get past, how do we get out?" Gwen interrupted, tugging us back to seriousness. "You know what US Immigration is like at the best of times."

"Hey! What the hell are you waiting around here for?" We were stopped by a familiar face: Rex Matheson.

"We're stuck, thanks to you!" Gwen snapped at him.

"Oh my god, you three are idiots. You're already landside, take a look around. You're at baggage claim for domestic flights. You could just walk out of here," Rex sighed. "Now come on and follow me."

"Hey, you get us arrested, OK?" Gwen hissed. "You break up my family, you nearly get Jack killed! Why should we go anywhere with you?"

"Because I have a car," he replied. I shrugged at Jack and Gwen, and we followed him. "Here, take your things." Rex said, tossing us back our vortex manipulators.

"Now are you glad I didn't let you bring your kid?" Rex was saying to Gwen as we walked through the exit. "Imagine her here in the middle of all of this. So how about thinking at some point that maybe I did something good? Ah! Perfect timing." Rex stopped next to a woman with a car.

"This had better be worth it." She said, handing Rex a bag, as we began to climb in the back of the car.

"Hey, what are you doing? That's not the car," Rex said, pointing at the smaller blue one behind it. "This is the car. She just came to bring me drugs. Sorry, babe, got to go."

"What do you mean, where are you going?" The woman, who I remembered from somewhere, asked him.

"What sort of getaway car is this?" Gwen exclaimed incredulously as Jack opened the back door for us. "I thought you Americans all had these big SUVs! This is rubbish!"

"Get in, get in." Rex ordered.

"Dr Juarez." A blonde woman stood by the front said to the first one. Ah, Dr Juarez from the hospital!

"Oh, Esther, isn't it?" She replied.

"Hi."

"Hey, I told you already, you can't stay here." A security guard shouted suddenly at Esther.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, we're going." She spluttered, climbing back into the driver's seat.

"Rex, you've got to work on these escape plans." Jack teased as we hopped in the back.

"I agree," I nodded. "Really, Rex. You'd be rubbish in the TARDIS."

"Where are we going?" Esther asked, ignoring us both.

"Just anywhere," Rex replied. "Hey, did I tell you that they'd bribed me with twice as much as you?" Esther pulled away. Just as we were about to leave the car park, she slammed on the brakes. I leaned forwards and squinted out of the front window. Stood right in the way of the car, was Lyn, but her head was twisted 180 degrees. The skin on her neck was rolled and coiled into strange shapes, almost like Gallifreyan writing.

"Oh, sh-" Rex started.

"Language!" I snapped. We all paused, looking at Lyn awkwardly.

_"Well… that's… "_

_"Different?" _

_"Yes, I think we'll go for that."_

"Alright, just drive. Drive." Rex spat, and Esther pulled the car around her.

"What the hell was that? Was that Lyn?" She cried as we left the car park. "What the hell is going on?"

"Welcome to Torchwood." Gwen said with a smile.

**LunaRoseDiCaprio: OK, on schedule so far :) Read & Review! xx**


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